Art by Pat Byrne: https://jamartprints.com/product-category/pat-byrne/
Mirror
In the mirror, the man I see
A happy lad, free as can be
Chained by one’s own self perception
Seeing flaws yet speaking perfection.
I show my best, not my impurities
A manly cloak cast o’er my insecurities.
Though when I witness others success
I compare myself and then depress
Dismay
As I look around
My smile fades to a frown
As I see my friends who were once gold
Turn away and become cold
As they take drugs and vape
They say they feel great
But I can see through the guise
They don’t care if they meet demise
I try to tell them but they care don’t about what I say
These sad and lonely days are filled with dismay
Small Town
Run with me to the city
Where we can be ourselves
We no longer have to hide
We can go to pride events
No macho lads to be homophobic
No one to gossip about you
You can be gay and happy there
But not in a small town
Reality
Primary ends as quick as it began
Sent to the town
They tell me I’m a man
Eager to start
Reality kicks in quick
No longer a student
But a silly statistic
Characteristics lost
Soon follow innocence
Brought up memorising nothing
Forgotten in an instance
This isn’t what I expected
Now lost in the system
Perception
In the mirror, the man I see
A happy lad, free as can be
Chained by one’s own self perception
Seeing flaws yet speaking perfection.
I show my best, not my impurities,
A manly cloak cast o’er my insecurities.
Though when I witness others success
I compare myself and then depress
Misogyny:
Man up to misogyny
I listened very inquisitively
Made me realize that toxic masculinity
Is utterly imprisoning me
With its ability to reduce
A man’s expressivity
To something like nothing
Girls and Boys
I’m going to talk
About girls and boy
About the bad
About the goods
Characteristics we do
The girls are more sensible
It is a fact
But in the other hand
Men are more friendly
And sports like much
The girls are more gossip
But in the other hand
Men are less talkative
But more competitive
Run
Run, run so you can hide
Run from the people that lie
Run from the people that deny
Who you want to be.
Don’t be me, be free
Free from the violence, free from the lies.
Out of the snake pit, don’t be a viper,
Become a piper, express yourself
Through the sound that flows through you
Unique to yourself.
Consequence Of War
Born with a roof over their head
They encircle the room looking for bread
And when they take out translate
To talk to the workers fixing their tie
All is seen is a dove in disguise
Hot water, Jam, sugar please?
Again they need Google Translate
And when handed the hot flask
A look of ease quenches their hungry, tired faces.
Hear you see the consequence of war
And while women and children lie dead back home
All we can ask is if they would like a warm scone.
A Friend
A loyal friend
Who I thought had rules
That would never bend
Had a break from the heart
A computer restart
Who’s morality
Is suffering a
New type of reality
And everyday I realize the tragedy
That once a child who could find fun
In a stick and a stone
Has turned to a past time
Could make him end up alone.
Subjects
Taught to be the best in every subject
And if I’m not then I’m a failure,
Some subjects are amazing while others i dread
Some subjects i love learning while others it comes
In one ears and leaves through the other,
I believe that school is great but i cant be great and
Because I’m not great at every subject doesn’t make me a failure
I just do better when i enjoy my life.
Meaning
I added you on ‘snap’ so I could see you in my life every day,
I know we can’t be together but virtually feeling you daily anyway,
I know I am nothing but you something gives me meaning every day,
I feel nature around me and I write on nature to feel you in every possible way,
I know you cannot be a poet so I am making you my poems from far away.
The Past
Don’t dwell on the past
The past is the past
Yesterday is history
Tomorrow is a mystery and
Today is a gift
That’s why it’s
Called the present
Life.
Life is life.
It what is.
Pain is temporary
And life is full of pain and futility
But once again
It what is
Hate
I’m always filled with so much rage,
Sometimes I feel like
Burning everyone to a crisp,
But I always hear a voice,
Saying I shouldn’t,
And that voice always gets
The best out of me,
Sometimes I wish it didn’t.
Rivalry
On the wettest of days on the muddiest of pitches,
We have the best matches,
The crunching bone breaking slide tackles,
The back chat to the ref
The fierce rivalry between towns
And the desire to win magnified by the crowd
All are part of the best sport
Dressed Different
From suits to dress many different way to stand out
To be dressed differently to another person
That is the difference between what ilike about fashion
From a different person’s sense of style
To you’re style that is away we all look
Different and stand out in our own ways
Your Best
You try your best but your best isn’t the best.
You go home to rest your head but all you hear is what is next.
Extra work but your pushed to your end.
Bend after bend but your just a joke to your friends.
Nothing is serious until it is when things
go to far something is done but not until then.
But none of this is real its all in your head
Championships
Life is a game, soccer is serious.
If at first you don’t succeed, its because of me.
A day without soccer is a day wasted .
Ill let my feet do the talking,
Its the most popular sport for a reason.
Championships are won at practice,
Not just a sport…An obsession.
Cycling
Speeding at what felt like lightning
Tears rolling slowly down my cheek as my eyes struggled
with the wind gushing of my face.
A shot of adrenalin shivered my spine
As i took the sharp blind corner with my tires screaming for mercy.
I merely missed the barrier at the end of the corner
I whispered to myself this is it this is cycling
Coming Together
Footballs flying high
Soaring above the sky
Smashing and crashing
Gliding and colliding
Mothers and brothers
All become one
One team One club
One community
Coming together as one
“The GAA”
No Matter
No matter the weather
No matter the pain
The kick always starts the game
Kick and scream,
you always want to be
The successful team
Even when you lose there is no shame
Because you’ve always had fun
By the end of the game
Castlebar
I am a boy from Castlerbar
If you’re from Dublin it is quite far
My father is a Dub
And he used to own a pub
Business was great, but if he had faith
We wouldn’t be in Castlebar
We live in town and that is sound
Good People
We all make mistakes
We all make them jokes
We all remember
We all remember and kick ourselves
for being who we are not
And at the end of the day
I believe we are all good people
Faith
To all the ballers out there
Grinding it out
Some say we’re set up for failure
The statistics check out
Less then one percent chance
But they don’t know
The grind that we go through
The dream that we pick up
Time and time again
But it’s not about going to the top
It’s about our journey
Make it or not
But we still hold on to that dream
As Neymar once said
1 percent chance
Ninety nine percent faith
I Am
I am a man
I am the hands on a clock
The ones that tick tok
Tick tock away, time passing nothing done nothing fun
I am the trees
Going down the slide screaming weeeee
A slide moving tooo fast
Everything just whizzing past
Mysterious
Life is long but death is longer,
The people that say life is short
Can not be wronger,
Due to life being
the longest thing we experience,
And what is after is completely mysterious
All Night
I don’t know what to write
It’s really bad
I will be here all night
I am sad