Poems by Robert Connolly
- MONDAY AFTER MIDNIGHT
I quietly crept behind you
That Monday after midnight
As you shuffled
Through the Millennium Walk
Wrapped in a Carhartt
Jacket two sizes too big
For you. You were
In a broken down place
And the stride of your soul
Had begun to pitter patter
To a fatal full stop.
You wandered into a bar
And asked the Chinese
Waitress for a napkin
But she couldn’t
Understand you-
Your words were whispered
With such frailty they fell apart.
Thirteen weeks later
The toxicology report
Said there was thirteen
Different drugs in your body
At the time of your death.
How many you had taken
That Monday after midnight,
I never want to know.
PUT OUT OF SIGHT
God bless my father,
Blessed as he is
With saint like
Patience
For the endless
Cycles of
Repetitive behaviour
That had me
Turning up
At his house
Without warning
At four
In the morning-
Searching for sanctuary,
For my salvation.
There is a place
In heaven reserved
For those persons
Whose hearts
Never hardened
Toward the
Faltering addict
Who put their
Patience to trial
And yet were
Forever pardoned
DO NOT BE SHAKEN
If you have tapped
On a bridge
And known the
Desolation
Of another human
Seeing you
Without offering
The consolation
Of a word
Or a coin;
My sister
Do not be shaken.
What is given
Will be received,
What was offered
Will be the compensation.
FAITHFUL INTERCESSOR
The car careered
Into a metal fence
That gave in
With no fuss,
Opening into an
Eight foot ditch
That I hit
Headfirst.
It was snowing
So I guess
I was blessed
That a nurse
Found me there,
Bleeding profusely
Yet perfectly
Preserved.
Saint Jude
Who’s Tattooed on
My right rib cage
Must have dug
Down deep and
Passionately
Prayed,
Beseeched
God
To reach out
And grant me
That grace-
Somehow assured
That I could
Be saved;
If I stopped,
If I listened
If I just
Fucking behaved.
Ambulance came
But I burned
And raged,
Got me locked
In a cell
Where cops
Periodically
Stopped
To ask if
I was OK.
Court
Bloody T-shirt,
After everything
Bail.
Went back home,
Did more Cocaine.
Broken down,
Broken nose,
In proper pain-
But hey kid
What’s the
Difference
If it feels
Just
The same?