Eamonn Shanahan
Boy from town meets girl from village
he’s neither malicious nor intelligent
believes in all the conspiracies
my son says
she a crazy bitch who hates the village
my son says
the mother of the boy is a close friend
of a close friend of my wife
boy makes girl pregnant
doesn’t tell his mother
when girl is big
girl’s mother phones boy’s mother
boy’s mother mortified
my son says the relationship was rubbish
they were always at each other
we knew it wouldn’t last
boy, by the way, is a bit of a goer
he works in a gun factory
earning good money
the families agree to meet
in the bar of the old hotel by the river
my wife’s close friend goes with her close friend
whose boy made a girl pregnant and didn’t even tell her
the families come to an arrangement
I don’t know what exactly
but the boy’s mother takes the baby on weekends
and the boy comes round
dandles the wee creature for fifteen minutes
then off he goes, says my wife,
partying with his mates
my son says again the boy’s alright
but a bit thick and horny as hell
runs around town more than a bit
we’ll see, but it doesn’t look good
Eamonn Shanahan is a London Irishman. He has been published in Salzburg Poetry Review, Pennine Platform, Magma, Strix, Orbis, and others. His debut pamphlet, Girl from Former Yugoslavia, was highly commended in the Fool for Poetry competition 2025 (Munster Literature Centre).
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