2 Poems by Niall O'Connor

Murder

My uncle's brain
weighs fifteen-hundred grams
the pathologist says.

Fifteen-hundred
grams of childhood laughter,
of being a baby brother,
of other sacred lives,
listened to and remembered,
grams of prayer and solitude.

Fifteen-hundred
grams kicked around by a polished shoe,
before being dropped into a silver tray
and weighed.

Fifteen-hundred
grams on the only scales of justice,
either he, or we,
would ever know

Love

I can only see your eyes
if you look into mine

As my heart beats alone
trembling in its cage,
my fingertips want to reach out
past the meniscus of my soul

Come!

Rest you now
in  my arms . . .

Bionote

Niall O'Connor is a published poet and blogger, in print and electronic, and reads regularly at the Writer's Centre and other popular Dublin venues. O'Connor's poems have been published in The Examiner and most recently in The Stoney Thursday Book, thefirstcut#, A handful of Stones, Carty’s Poetry Journal, Madrush, Outburst, Corvus, God’s and Monsters, A Blackbird Sings, Connotation Press, and others. He was a featured poet at the inaugural Fermoy Poetry Festival 2012. He blogs at the very popular dublinepost.blogspot.ie.  dublinepost@gmail.com