bring me sleep in builders’ buckets used for wet cement- pour it over my bed, my back. bring me sleep on a measuring spoon, a gleaming elixir tipped & drooled into my mouth, my ears. bring sleep in sheets of foil wrapped around my feet like two plucked birds prepared for roasting. bring me sleep in the first birthday card you ever wrote me; its brash expletives of love making an abuse of me. bring sleep from under your car hood. funnel its fume in one long gauze of grey gas. bring me sleep in a carnival of rain, or on branches of cracked glass. bring it in the sun-beat, the moon’s weeping lake of ash, the squash & jolt of mattress springs, or in the sense you had of yourself in your last bath while listening to the Chopin prelude you love too much to understand. bring me sleep on the end of your hand, in the smell of the clothes you took, in the sound of you coming back over the fields, the roads, falling into me; breaking all my bones.
Eugene O‘Hare was born in Ireland. He was shortlisted for the 2021 poetry prize at Belfast Book Festival. Recent poems have appeared in a variety of European and American journals. He is also an actor and playwright. His plays are published by Methuen Bloomsbury.
Featured Artwork:
Ghost Trees at Chang’s Restaurant
Barbara Candiotti is a former High Tech Worker, now exclusively working on writing, art, and poetry endeavors. She holds a certificate in 3D Animation from the Vancouver Film School and a certificate in Film and Video from the University of Washington. Star*Line and Eye to the Telescope have published her poems. Her photography has been accepted by Reservoir Road Literary Review. Her Digital Art has been accepted by Phantom Kangaroo, Evocations Review, Zoetic Press, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, and Star*Line – Cover Art.