Two Poems
Tim Murphy
Detoxification
A muffled song freezes in the flowering night,
the felt swell of dying dreams invades my skin;
mild madness seesaws in stony silence,
waves of shimmering rain meet my burning teeth;
a gleaming moment challenges the dark horizon,
invisible hysteria weaves around my impatient arm.
Vile whispers resound in voracious sadness,
remnants of panic pour from my parched pupils —
yet the debris of cascading delusion delivers me
and a quirk of cool delirium carries me home.
Night Map
ravers of the ancient night
when you spy a woman
pulling through glorious fingers
the empty brightness of her eyes
if then you also detect
above a valley
bluebirds dancing in electric light
and pick up signals too
from the cacti
you tend and love
by these portents you will know
that you are not yet
come to morning
“Night Map” is modeled after Jean Follain’s poem, “Signes pour voyageurs”, which appears in English translation by W.S. Merwin [“Signs for Travelers”] in Transparence of the World (Copper Canyon Press, 2003).
Tim Murphy is an Irish writer based in Spain. His poems have appeared in journals such as Anthropocene, Snakeskin, Snapdragon, The Honest Ulsterman and NOON: a journal of the short poem. His first collection is Mouth of Shadows (SurVision Books, 2022). Tim Murphy at ē·rā/tiō.