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A poem by Anne Casey

crush

“In 1910 Dr. Napoleone Burdizzo, an Italian veterinary surgeon, invented the instrument which carries his name... It is used to crush the spermatic cord within the scrotum, resulting in testicular atrophy within about 40 days.” — Robert Zufall, “Use of Burdizzo Clamp to Crush Vas”, The Journal of Urology, vol 80, No 3, September 1958

i didn’t want him killed

only crushed just enough

that he would learn to exhale

the same stale breath of despair

he had filled me with over time

i used to picture the scene

hark at the creak of the shed

door, shiver at the quiver of

the straw shred

caught on his roped shoulder

the spill of light pricking

eyes after all that darkness a

soft whimper

warming the chill night air

his shrivelling truths laid bare

the truth is i just needed someone

to crush his tiny mind but mine was

too inconvenient a truth at the

time too easily

brushed aside

unlike this rancid exhalation in my

ear for all these years “no-one

will believe you” his

inconvenient truth always

trumping mine

last night i heard undeniable

creaks in the dark

shuffles of small feet the smack of a stick

in a soft palm

a gaping grate of rusted metal

the sounds of countless

inconvenient truths

assembling for a reckoning

Anne Casey

#anne casey #irish poetry #crush #burdizzo

US poet and writer Maggie Smith in conversation with Irish-Australian poet and writer Anne Casey on what makes their writing tick

“I think sometimes it’s easier to write a hard truth than to speak it. At least I know I won’t be interrupted, and I don’t have to stand there watching someone’s expression as I divulge something painful."

US poet, writer, and SPD author Maggie Smith (GOOD BONES, Tupelo Press) in conversation with Irish-Australian poet and writer Anne Casey at The Irish Times:

#interview #maggie smith #good bones #tupelo press #the irish times #anne casey

1965 Judy Grable, Anne Casey, Penny Banner

#Judy Grable #Anne Casey #Penny Banner #Vintage Wrestling

1965 How The Girls Rate

#Penny Banner #Fabulous Moolah #Judy Grable #Rita Cortez #Anne Casey #Fran Gravette #Princess Little Cloud #Karen Kellogg #Mars Monroe #jean antone #Vintage Wrestling

#Antonino Rocca #Anne Casey #Bulldog Brower #Vintage Wrestling

A poem by Anne Casey

Exhibit A

I don't like zoos, but don't want the zoo to feed the animals to each other- as some say may happen when funds run dry.

I don't like zoos caged animals make me restless, my conscience pacing the length of each fence as I take my kids to help feed the animals.

I don't like zoos, but the tufts fluttering above the baby giraffe's soaring forehead muster a small smile and I now see how a zebra might be taken down by a tiger that august magnificence holding me

entirely magnetised until I am pulled away to gawk at the meerkat standing high on his hind legs: ramrod back, head periscoping to take in his doting

observers. I don't like zoos as a swing of gibbon, a swoop of interloping cockatoos, a nuzzle of spoonbill, roll and tumble of young chimp, a nestle of fennec fox,

a stalk of red panda, a lilac flash of fairy penguins elbowing past, a cheeky splash of seals stir small waves of panic as I really don't want

the zoo to feed the animals to each other, but it's Mr Hobbs who totally flips my mind, pacing faster than my guilt Mr Hobbs the sun bear who still

suffers from anxiety more than twenty years since he was saved from the food trade, Mr Hobbs whose golden face and wild amber eyes fail to hide the darkness behind:

fourteen thousand of his kind caged and milked for bile this smallest and rarest of bears who just now sits up high having found some slight glob of honey secreted

in a log nearby. this shy, bright boy with his heart of the sun turned conservation ambassador, like the once-wild tigers fighting palm oil driving native

rainforest decline from their cage confines, the corroboree frogs with their loud battle stripes- saved from extinction to be conscripted

against their species' plight- so, though I don't like zoos, where else might we see them in a while?

Anne Casey

Anne Casey writes: This #ecopoem was inspired by a horrifying news story early in the pandemic which warned that #zoos were running out of funds and would be forced to feed the animals to each other. I immediately organised a family trip to Taronga Zoo Sydney to support their #animal #wildlife#ecosystem #conservation efforts, some of which are mentioned in the poem. (Did I mention there are meerkats?)

More poems by Anne Casey are available through her website.

#anne casey #irish poetry #exhibit a #zoos

A poem by Anne Casey

Between ebb and flow

Mist rolls off moss-green hills Where wind-wild ponies thunder Manes flying as they chase Their seaward brothers Locked in eternal contest On this deserted grey mile

Past the little stone churchyard Long-forgotten graves spilling Stones onto the sodden bog A soft snore from behind My two angels sleeping Thirteen thousand miles

From all they have ever known Running our own race To make the best Of spaces like this A rainbow rises along the horizon And I recognise her

Come for my mother Locked in her own Immortal struggle The sister returned So I know it won’t Be long now

And I cry a little at The unbearable beauty Of these diastoles When we are all Suspended Here in a heartbeat

Between heaven and earth

Anne Casey

More poems by Anne Casey are available through her website.

Listen to Anne Casey read the poem (at 2.24).

#anne casey #irish poetry #ebbandflow

Poem Of The Week | burnt offerings by Anne Casey

http://dlvr.it/QTJ1Kr #HeadStuff

#Poetry #poetry #contemporary poetry #poem of the week #Anne Casey