Back to index of Nerve 24 - Summer 2014

Poetry, Photographs and Artwork

'Invasion of Space' by Amanda Lynn

MAKING LOVE by Val Walsh

You were an escape from politics:
there's-no-such-thing-as-society,
get-on-your-bike politics. If you
can't buy it or sell it, it's worthless.

Then you became a bolthole, a
haven from the domestic storm.
Ladders and brushes, assembled
furniture, drifting voiles, sunlight
penetrating rooms and hearts.

An alternative of peace and laughter.

Improvising a way through loss
and anxiety, team-cooking produced
new tastes and flavours. Exuberant
hospitality flourished. This open-hearted
hostel absorbed all comers. Visitors
and friends, passing strangers. Noisy
companionship was tracked by live music
and song. The sound of hearts racing.

Safety and harmony, the clatter of
community, the friction of intimacy.
These create their own aesthetic:
an emergent beauty, inside and out.

EANNA: 'house of heaven'. Home.

Tony Bishop - Dunes

FRACKING by Lynsey Farrelly

So now the Pains in the ass want to drill for shale gas
Hydraulic fracking has got the government's backing
Just another reason we should send them packing
Chemical contamination what's next for the nation
Let's just pollute the water and the air
Until the earth's beyond repair
Poison us so we can't drink and we can't breathe
With the environment the way it is. Is this what we need?
Let them abuse the earth for all it's worth
Until there's nothing left
And God declares for all they're worth
The Tories burn in Hell!
Maggie is already there
For what she did to this country
And by the time they get down there
They'll all be in good company!

Tommy Graham - “My work's been described as 'a darkly humorous, sardonic blend of comic book illustration and graffiti style graphics'. I guess that's pretty accurate. I'm available for commissions, illustrations and live paintings. I was going to write this in the third person, but bottled it at the last minute.” tommygrahamart.com

TRUSTEES by Ted Seagrave

It's not reds-under-the-beds,
inscrutable oriental maniacs,
the Muslim Brotherhood,
nor high-fiving, wi-fi hackers instead,
the chink in I.T's 'security'
that undermines Democracy
lies within Bureaucracy.
These teenage cyber geeks
and scrolling do-little Lizas
are now privy to and scrutinise
our private information.
Facts are hid on grounds
of confidentiality, yet
papers get their leaks.

What matters are that targets set
by scheming politicians are met
to gain their bonuses.
The onus for these Radical reforms
to re-fill coffers with piffling pounds
is on the poor by trifling with rents.
Now there's little room for:
junk, the dying dog,
or returning soldier sons.
The days of helpful Town Hall
'Honest Johns' are done.
Our Trust is taxed, our Patience spent
with apparatchiks so remote
they're only linked by 08-45 calls.
It's time they went,
these sinecured turncoats
and A* starred, naive slackers.

'Deb's Shed' by Deb Palmer

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