New Poetry by Maurice Devitt

Street Song

Step on a line

you marry

the devil

no longer

to savour

the candyfloss

of grace -

instead

the check-list

of sins,

the first

confession

an easy choice

between murder

and omission,

the craving

to beard

the bogeyman,

loosely

imprisoned

in an upstairs room,

the curious

keyhole of mascara,

the too-loose clip

of his mother’s shoes

and in the corner

a wireless

playing

all the best tunes.

- Maurice Devitt 2012

Lost Earring

Did it fall

as you took off

your coat and how

did you notice?

The sudden

slight imbalance

a pin-prick

of air or fingers

expecting

the confidence

of silver

only to feel

the lobe of a baby

untarnished

by the script

of borrowed

beauty?

Spurred

by the curiosity

of distance

and lust

I saw it

quite quickly

in the drunken

shadow of my chair

but demurred

wanting the search

to last forever

- Maurice Devitt 2012

A student at Mater Dei in Dublin, Ireland, Maurice is reading for an MA in Poetry Studies. Short-listed in 2011 for both the Fish Poetry prize and the Cork Literary Review Manuscript Competition, and runner-up in the Phizzfest poetry competition, he has had poems accepted by Abridged, Moloch, Paraxis, Weary Blues, #firstcut, Boyneberries, Stony Thursday and Smiths Knoll and is working towards a first collection.