States of Poetry - Poems
States of Poetry 2016 - South Australia | 'Where Brownlee Went' by Thom Sullivan
by Thom Sullivan •
after Paul Muldoon's 'Why Brownlee Left'
Where Brownlee went, and why he went,
is no mystery – Brady's bar.
And if a man should have fixed intent
it was him; two shots of whiskey,
one of Bushmills, one of Redbreast,
a cheer and a slab for the house.
He was then seen going out to piss
in the March morning, sure and surly.
By noon Brownlee was legless;
they found him in the beer-garden, the
modest ring untaken, his hair slick-wet –
and the publican's daughter
shifting a bucket from hand to
hand, him howling into a hankie.
Thom Sullivan