lawrence welsh | after the kennedys

AFTER THE KENNEDYS

we acknowledge
a kind of loss
on the streets
that can’t get healed
on any journey
as the confines
of south central
just got smaller
closed over us
like a final spade shot
at the grave

and we will never climb
any higher
for they’ve closed off opportunities
for roots to proclaim
“irish” and “catholic”
are dirty traits
to get us killed

what reprieve exists
does not stand
as we say
give us knives and guns
aim them at our hearts
and heads
we’ll gladly take
their fists too
and succumb to a
butchered fate
awaiting our breed
and our kind

Please note the following event:

Summer Poetry Series presents Kim Noriega, Lawrence Welsh & Rex Wilder.Event date: Thursday, July 08, 2010, at 8:00 PM Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles

Tony Moffeit and Lawrence Welsh | Santa Fe, New Mexico, on May 23, 2010 the day after the Todd Moore memorial in Albuquerque.Lawrence Welsh

is a first generation Irish American and former award-winning journalist, Welsh has published seven books of poetry, including Skull Highway (La Alameda Press, 2008). A new collection, Begging for Vultures: New and Selected Poems, 1994-2009, is forthcoming from the University of New Mexico Press. During the past 20 years, his work has appeared in more than 200 national and regional magazines, journals and anthologies, including Puerto del Sol, Hawaii Review, The Louisiana Review, Rio Grande Review, The Texas Observer, The Wormwood Review, Onthebus, Pearl, The Café Review, Nexus and the book Das Ist Alles – Charles Bukowski Recollected. A winner of the Bardsong Press Celtic Voice Writing Award in Poetry, Welsh is an associate professor of English at El Paso Community College. He’s married to Lisa McNiel, a professor and poet, and they have two young children, Megan and Patrick.

Much more on Lawrence Welsh can be found by clicking here…

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