---

Feeling the corrosion on your bones, after all

this master of wastage declares itself staid

inside in the searing heat, blowing cigarettes

stenching the corridor like none other

vibrating wake-up calls disposed of carefully.

Loved like none other, winding up those traits

moved along discreetly for paying bitches

hurt by exclusion, typical of these creatures

exiting hurriedly under cover of insult.

Watched incessantly under the eye of the teacher,

paying through the nose to gain an education

frittering it away for sake of entertainment

god forsake you, as we shall too,

never knowing enough to apply, to succeed.

Blackboard work, coming at a worse time

concocting results before redacting at will

impersonal copies sitting on the ledge

being infinitely good a means to another end.

Routinely ignored, spoken to denigrate,

self-administered poison blots out transgressions,

running through corridors to staunch the bleeding

staring at associates through unspectacled eyes

needing a refund for this is essential.

---

Patricia Walsh was born and raised in the parish of Mourneabbey, Co Cork, Ireland.  To date, she has published one novel, titled The Quest for Lost Eire, in 2014, and has published one collection of poetry, titled Continuity Errors, with Lapwing Publications in 2010. She has since been published in a variety of print and online journals.  These include: The Lake; Seventh Quarry Press; Marble Journal; New Binary Press; Stanzas; Crossways; Ygdrasil; Seventh Quarry; The Fractured Nuance; Revival Magazine; Ink Sweat and Tears; Drunk Monkeys; Hesterglock Press; Linnet’s Wing, Narrator International, The Galway Review; Poethead and The Evening Echo.  She has also published anovel, In The Days of Ford Cortina, in August 2021.