Two Poems
Tim Murphy
Cairo Calling
A sparrow hawk steals
a dead ibis
from a kite’s mouth.
An initiation text
acts as a talisman.
Magic words resound
in an inner world.
Exorcised spirits are kept at bay,
the bandaged life-force is healed.
Outside the city,
there is an obscure sign,
a fog that lights the way.
A Pharaoh’s ghost castles
on the queen’s side.
In Dreamsight
swordfish fight with joy
like windmills crucifying
a dried-out horizon
fallen plum trees
lie like dragons
on bone-dry earth
vast eyelids cast
tent awning shadows
over lakes of liquid stone
a dry waterfall
wages war
on a square sand dune
a fire river
flows through
parched clay
and on a dusty tightrope
an amphibian drowns
in empty space
Tim Murphy is the author of three chapbooks: Art Is the Answer (Yavanika Press, 2019), The Cacti Do Not Move (SurVision Books, 2019) and There Are Twelve Sides to Every Circle (If a Leaf Falls Press, 2021). His poems have also appeared in Anthropocene, Frontera, Maintenant, Snakeskin, Snapdragon and Sulfur, among others. Originally from Cork in Ireland, he lives in Madrid.