Carboot
Every scratch from every needle
is hidden inside these sleeves –
the scars off inadvertent drops
from when a certain personal hit
was needed – carried around
in square bags worn as badges
accumulated on Saturdays
browsing Eastern Bloc, Decoy,
Golden Disc, Piccadilly –
dancing footsteps with fingers
along the tops of boxes,
the same as he does now
before he stops and, glancing –
not part of the crowd
pressing for phones, holding on
to seized-up watches, uninterested
in unread biographies – asks
as if it’s nothing, for me
to put a price on it all.
Patrick Slevin has appeared in Poetry Ireland Review, The Manchester Review, Poets’ Republic, Skylight 47, Drawn to the Light, The Cormorant, The Interpreter’s House and others and has been featured on RTE’s Poem of the Day.