New Irish Writing: How to Sell a Pair of Runners and An Tástáil

How to Sell a Pair of Runners

Be ready for rejection,
but always say,
I'll be just over here
if you need anything."
Our surveys have shown
this is less aggressive.

When they're eyeing
the latest pair,
come
from behind,
stretch
the neon blue laces,
run your palmalong
its feather-light body,
stun them
with its architecture,
the finish line design.

Don't be ashamed
to open up
your chest to them
like Christ.
Let them see
your scorching heart,
show them
you're one of the good ones.

Dolores review: Short and potent story of a young woman in trouble

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Boris Johnson and 72 Virgins: What we can learn from his terrible novel

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Tomorrowland: ‘I can’t believe my life’

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Poem of the week: Kiss

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Have them slip on the left,
hold your thumb at their toe,
How's that feel? Is there enough room?
Wow! You look like a pro!
Tell them this is what
the Olympians wore in 2012.
Just like that, the reel rolls
in the dark theatre behind
their eyes: next year's City 10K,
their lungs hauling
victory air,
salt stinging their lips,
the red banner tearing against
their beautiful stone chests,
and then you, and me,
who pillared those collapsed arches
with a double layer
of injected gel.

And soon they'll be back,
because these are built
to rot on roads.
Now go get em!
If you need anything,
I'll be just over there.

An Tástáil

We were locked in language. In the rise
and fall of words rattling our red cages:

our lungs heavy with translation, your ears
filled with my street-gutter Gaelic.

You taught me the words for ocean,
aigéan, farraige. Told me to rinse them

off my tongue, slowly, wringing out
each drop. But those words wouldn't leave

the dark hole of my head, crashed
against my teeth like a stone.

You plied the art of drowning,
casting me like a sailor overboard,

and when I'd inhaled enough salt,
picked me up like a shell, held your ear

to my mouth, listened for what I had learned.

Simon Costello’s work has been published in The Honest Ulsterman, The North, Rattle, The Stinging Fly and The Tangerine. He is on the MFA programme in the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University and is also a student of writer Mary-Jane Holmes. He has been editor’s choice for US poetry magazine Rattle (October 2017) and shortlisted for the 2018 Red Line Book Festival Competition. He is from Co Offaly.