“Up and Out” by Eithne Strong

Up and Out

At this empyrean time when we have gained the moon
in our nineteen seventies’ boots we smash barbarian heels
on bowels and balls

of internee; jag flesh on spikes of glass, fry babies,
sear with liquid fire old men, depose the irretrievable

brain; slit, mutilate,
in cruelty far outlashing jungle territorial lusts.
North or brown, black or west, there is no clear difference

as to time nor place
in our nice savageries — perhaps a finer point of torture
here or there: electronics has its undeniable innovative
advantages –

but the vomit of prehistory reeks curiously
identical with that of the twentieth century. 

Up and Out by Eithne Strong , from Sarah in Passing . The Dolmen Press Poetry , 1974.

• The Dolmen Press
•  Eithne Strong
•  Women Poets Category on Poethead
•  A Saturday Woman Poet on Poethead