The Mouth

There was this head had this mouth he kept shooting off. Unfortunately.
It could have been worse for us than it was for him. Provisionally.
But since nothing in this world is certain and you don’t know who hears what
We thought it was time he bit off more than he could chew. Literally.
By the time he is found there’ll be nothing much left to tell who he was.

But of course some clever dick from the ‘Forscenic Lab’ reconstructs
Him, what he used to be – not from his actual teeth, not fingerprints,
But from the core – the toothmarks of the first and last bite he’d taken of
This sour apple. But then we would have told them anyway. Publicity.

© Ciaran Carson, The Mouth, 1989, complete text, Belfast Confetti, 1989, The Gallery Press.

Ciaran Carson adopts the cynical voice of an IRA killer describing how he dealt with an informer.