SHELF HEROES Zine

These two poems were published in SHELF HEROES‘ A and B zines about films, they’re inspired by The Aristocats and Bambi.

Thomas O’Malley

Well, we almost
had a father but
instead we have
this father figure
father away, but
still here and
teaching us, so
we don’t have to
know he’s just for
her, our mother,
beautiful and
unsuspecting or
unsuspecting enough 
to attract a
philanderer that
us kittens want
to love.




Bambi Realises That His Mum Has Died

It’s not so much the shot that does it,
but when you turn around and 
see that
you might have been 
running alone 
for a long time.

and when my moth-urrrrr 
fast forwards over death she omits
this stag
that comes down from the mountain 
to declare

that all moth-urrss 
are transitory
and, just this once,
to call me son.