Adventurer

His is not a little life,
caged, safe behind parkgates;
instead he lives unbuttoned.

Bootstuds still muddied up,
playing yo-yo on the peg,
tired legs still kicking.

An extra sense
for where the zest is,
he hunts relentless.

He sees what marks us
is what makes us
and what he knows is this:

All that matters
is where the heart is,
all else is periphery.


Harry Gallagher has been published by, among others, IRON Press, Smokestack, The Interpreter’s House and Prole. His most recent book ‘Running Parallel’ (2019) was co-authored with p.a.morbid for Black Light Engine Room Press. He runs the Tyne & Wear stanza of the Poetry Society and is currently working on a commission from the BBC for National Poetry Day 2019.

Paris

The world has gotten smaller
and the slaughter, always far away,
is now upon the doorstep.
Young and old alike, strewn
like poppies in a tempest.

And time the thief cannot be re-bought.
La Vie En Rose is far too short.
Je te deteste is easier to say
than je t’adore today.

Mr Panico

In wartime Middlesbrough, as soon as Italy declared war on Britain, the previously loved Ice Cream family, the Panicos, began having their windows put in…

Today’s ice cream may contain
hundreds and thousands,
somewhat sharp on the tongue.
A shard ninety nine special.

As old Mr Panico combed
the remains of his windows
out of his scalp, the cares
of the world came to rest

on the shoulders of a sudden
accidental outsider as a town
full of mongrels, turned
on the little man who had made

their own children’s lives
that wee bit sweeter.

Harry Gallagher has been widely published and his third pamphlet, ‘Chasing The Sunset’ (Black Light Engine Room Press), is out now. He also co-runs The Stanza, a monthly poetry night just outside of Newcastle.  More info at www.harrygallagherpoet.wordpress.com“

Survivor

It’s always a fine line,
come the reckoning time
for the slow and weak to be picked off the herd;
while we, still in the race
to stay out of bottom place,
can kid ourselves they got what they deserved.

They were finally caught out
for all that loafing about
while we in the warm will trample each other.
Because I’m alright Jack,
I’ve got my own back;
and I’m just fast enough to use you for cover.

I’m safe in the middle,
but they’re on the fiddle,
while that poor chap couldn’t have been keener.
I’ll be sad to see him gone,
but he was never very strong;
you see, my friends and I, we voted Hyena.

Harry Gallagher co-founded and co-runs The Stanza, a monthly poetry night in Newcastle. He gigs regularly across the North and his poetry has been published widely. In 2014 he co-authored “Dark Matter 3” (Black Light Engine Room Press) and his pamphlet, “How It Is: Snapshots From A Northern Town” (Heddon Quarry) is released in June 2015.