The Tuesday Poem: The Market of Colour

This is the prickly pear

This is the brown virgin

who sees everything.

This is the matted hair

of a blood-splattered priest.

As we walk through the market of colour

in broad daylight every part

of an animal is eaten.

Noise.

This is the city of smoke and mountains

where graffiti is a prayer

painted on the wall.

This is the place where Jesus

lurks on every corner promising salvation

and clean air in the next life.

Dylan Brennan was runner-up for the Patrick Kavanagh Award.

His book Blood Oranges, from which this poem is taken, has just been published by Cork based The Dreadful Press.