Estadio Vicente Calderon : Final Photograph by John Doyle

Atletico Madrid 3 Osasuna 0
13th November 2010
 
It was (recalling Patrick Jones)
- an everlasting -
 
skies forgetting  that white
morphs into blue,
 
traffic's drift like swarming tufts of goldfish,
beneath us, almost - the cracks of brutal
 
yet tender concrete, the man who handed me a souvenir
nine years before - gratis; I set him free too, his face
 
like an envelope burning;
the mascot was eight years old, 
 
though things change in time -
they really don’t, 
 
a grandstand 
made dizzy by bumblebees 
 
disguised by automobiles,
standing there like my grandfather 
 
all alone in the hospital corridor;
Dutch girls visit student nurse friends
 
next door -
Dutch girls who left us 
 
at the Vicente Calderon,
alone in a hotel corridor.
 
Death has an easy job, 
but must get real lonely
 
killing the beauty we find, even in concrete, 
even in death itself

John Doyle became a Mod again in the summer of 2017 to fight off his impending mid-life crisis; whether this has been a success remains to be seen. He has has two collections published to date, A Stirring at Dusk in 2017, and Songs for Boys Called Wendell Gomez in 2018, both on PSKI's Porch.

He is based in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. All he asks is that you leave your guns at the door and tie up your horses before your enter.

Death Proof by Amrita Valan

Not a woman
Not a child 
Not a ghost
Not a goddess
But a shadow
A faint shadow
A fake profile  
Of a human
A fading away
A waning away
A dying away
Never dead

The undead lives
Its proof it breathes
Stale air
Dead air

Death proof
The living dead.

I am from India, mother of two small boys. I hold a master’s degree in English literature.I have worked in BPOs, and as content creator for simulation management entrance examination papers,(deductive logic in English), as well as in the hospitality industry.(As receptionist at a five-star hotel) while awaiting results of my English honours examination. I love life, like tumbling headfirst into it, and then doing a double take to step back and observe it.I have written over a thousand poems on genres including Love, Spirituality, Family, Religion, Current affairs, Human Rights, a few short stories, funny poems and tales for my children.