Poem of the Week |21| Bad News

Bad News

While there is a line on Dominic Street
like tickets have gone on sale
for the reunion tour
of The Beatles’ original line-up,
special guests Yoko Ono on tambourine,
Linda McCartney on didgeridoo,
the same moment
families sit in living rooms
waiting for the worst
that they said would not happen
and so certainly will.
There is one particular man
at a kitchen table in County Meath who,
in a way, is all unparticular men
this sad grey afternoon
following the new budget
as he makes suitable changes
to a shopping list
that is the incontrovertible proof
life has become a postman
each day dropping
more envelopes of bad news
through the letter box
on which the name and address
are never not yours.