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Alan Jude Moore

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Maria Rosato

            wore black until the day she died
colour of songs and death
singing and dying consume us

stood by heavy curtains
half-drawn attending to the light
as if it depended on our presence

to move through the room
slide over wood
cast itself around
shapes of metal and porcelain

cling to the side of whiskey glasses
dance for a moment in the droplets

and exit amber against the wall

            dressed in black with children
travel back over barren places
eaten out of mountains
like an empire of hunger

rising through the ranks
of the merchants and the saved
no more fish-knives and moustaches

untidy belts or wide lapels
no more lives lost
unwrapped and uncoddled

we are old foreigners
lasted this time
against the glass
the shutter
and clicks

time now in the counting and the prayers
to arrange the shades against each other

to rummage through memories
of funerals and music

Alan Jude Moore was born in Dublin. Black State Cars (2004) and Lost Republics (2008) are published by Salmon Poetry. His work has also been published in Italian and Russian and his fiction has been twice short-listed for the Hennessy Literary Award.

Page(s) 50-51

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