HCE received a lot of high-quality submissions for the Toys & Games Issue sadly, too many to fit inside the magazine! So we offered some of our shortlisted contributors the chance to be published on our website. Below is just one of the pieces we loved. Keep an eye on our website for more great writing like this, in the run up to the release date of Toys & Games…

 


 

Toys

Patrick Walsh

 

A Lionel locomotive,
No. 736 –
the brawny Berkshire engine
hauled every car I had.
I’d nod off gazing at it;
that train could take me anywhere.
A BMW 7 Series
luxury sedan:
as big as Connecticut
and all it can do
is shuttle me
between home and the office.

 


Patrick Walsh‘s poetry has appeared in Barrow Street, Evergreen Review, The Recorder, and War, Literature & the Arts. Beyond America, his work has also featured in venues abroad, including The Malahat Review, THE SHOp, Poetry New Zealand, and The Quadrant Book of Poetry, 2001-2010. Currently, he has poems in Kelsey Review and Tales from the Forest. Patrick lives and writes in Princeton, New Jersey.