Carnival Day
Omagh, Co. Down, Northern Ireland August 15th 1998
Slugs ‘Mucous gastropods without shells, bilious brown and green, chocolate box black and blue’ slaughtered our delicate shoots on carnival day in our market town. Should we execute? Salt or pellets would do the trick. They’d liquidate, leaving, by the morning, a glutinous trail of silver synovial fluid. Or perhaps, perhaps we should not retaliate, but put out a bowl of beer and let them make their own arrangements.
Omagh April 4th 2011
It’s spring now and time to plant,
to plant out new plants. We’ve had
thirteen years of colourful explosions
in our tubs, but not, not until today,
any deaths on the ground.
During those many years the
gentle Irish rains have diluted the
poisons and weakened our defence.
Death has returned, must we now,
God help us, increase the dose?
