populace place

If I was a nine to five

then so are you.

If I am an altar,

grá mo chara, are too.

The rules of language

do not comply with large groups

of bodies and their manners.

Up stream, of bygones,

endless from us, body

uniformed as rivers to a gulf

of habit.

Merchants waiting

in dotted lines to fame,

Sabbath. Job sabbaticals.

Dipping dirty clothes

in the line, unrested.

Jessie McCarty is a queer, Irish-American writer and information professional. They are an editorial curator at Faoileánach (an Irish phrase meaning “where the seagulls gather.”) Previously, they were co-Artistic Director of the Runaways Lab Theater (2021-2025). Their full-length debut, Pretty Punks, is out now Magra Books in December 2025 (ed. Sean Pessin, Paul Vangelisti). Previous collections include The Bovine Huff (Track and Field Studios, 2021) and the self-published artist book, Our Fairy Diary (2023).