The Speed of Cat’s Eyes
His eco-ship purrs silver-smooth
past shores of bastard-amber stars,
chases the veined twist of tail-lights,
long spaces poised for sudden red.
Earth’s skin, spinning culture
at past the speed of sound
around its centre, skims the sun
many thousand miles per hour more.
He turns up his thoughts in stereo –
lick the cream from these lips honey –
sees movement from the passenger seat,
a reason to steer with his knees.
He stirs honey into chamomile,
skins up, scribbles a quatrain ending –
no hands, see? Her mirage smile,
her eyes that flicker. Her invisible fur.
(from home more or less, Salmon Poetry, 2012)
Poet and filmmaker, Paul Casey, is the founder of the Ó Bhéal reading series in Cork. As well as his debut collection, home more or less, he has published a chapbook of longer poems, It’s Not all Bad, (Heaventree Press, 2009) and in October 2010 his poetry-film, The Lammas Hireling, after the poem by Ian Duhig, premiered in Berlin.
andotherpoems.com 