Experiences

have i been stung by a wasp outside

the italian takeaway under the neon sign that spells

out R O M A in pink and blue and reminds me of miami in the 1980s

or did i tell you about the guy who was watching

the shawshank redemption on his macbook

in the emergency room

while i waited for my mom after she had stopped

breathing in the ambulance and anyway

how authentic an experience do you think you can have

in the cavernous college hallways

below a multinational coffeehouse

because sometimes you just want to eat chicken

without a side order of reality

[This is a short extract, the full article is available to read in Issue Three]

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Naghten Shanks lives in Dublin. His writing has featured in The Penny Dreadful, 3:AM Magazine, Poems in Which, New Irish Writing, The Quietus, 30 Under 30 (Doire Press), New Planet Cabaret (New island) and elsewhere. He is editor of The Bohemyth.