Yorick’s Skull in Preservation Hall
sacrifices craft. Wild oats run wheat. The craftsman holds
a rotary phone in Acadia National Park. Hold your fire.
Unplug killing for country. The philosophy of modern song
equals one hundred sacks of rice blindness. Question seven:
the cinnamon peeler or the butterfly’s burden? The Tasmanians
traverse the Great Lakes from Syracuse to Duluth, portage
Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario, ransack Kingston
and Thunder Bay. Willunga’s Bush Inn promotes recreation
and wellness. The phone label declares: If it’s for me, tell them to fuck
off. A non-transferrable replacement, reverse-charges call.
Wooden Melbourne tram blocks were used from 1880 to 1930.
Postcards, stamps and stationery depict Ned Kelly, Hozier
at Glastonbury. Please send lyrics and memories, a slow combusting
hymn played in a red telephone box. Nick Cave grasps Yorick’s
skull in Preservation Hall. Ampersand sends love to Dumbledore
and Fawkes from Joshua Tree National Park and Breifne. GAA
transfixes: extraordinary, chilling, razor bloodaxe vintage shadows
at the gate. Marshall blasts Flagstaff Hill and Cabra Castle.
Special bitter Trinity writers congregate at St. James’s Gate,
glimpse Port Fairy and the rive Moyne, speculators on the corner
at Ballarat, Grassmere Lake, Golden Point, the corner of Bourke
and Swanston. The Jerilderie Letter creative turf-cutter speaks
harbour works and the mouth of the Moyne in Belfast, Graf von
Faber-Castell, warehouse skateboards, Swatch irony, Tintin.
Aromatherapy stress relief eucalyptus quick absorbing treatment
safely removes the outermost layer of dread.
Note: A found poem utilizing words & phrases read & heard in my study.
The athletic revolution gives back, restores trails, water
About the Author
Nathanael O’Reilly is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Texas at Arlington. His poetry collections include Terminals (above/ground press, 2025), Separation Blues: Poems 1994-2024 (Flying Islands Books, 2024), Dublin Wandering (Recent Work Press, 2024), Landmarks (Lamar University Literary Press, 2024), (Un)belonging (Recent Work Press, 2020) and Preparations for Departure (University of Western Australia Publishing, 2017). His work appears in journals and anthologies published in fifteen countries, including Cordite, Mascara, Meanjin, New World Writing Quarterly, Rabbit, Southword, Trasna, Westerly, West Trade Review and Wisconsin Review.