Michael Naghten Shanks [b. 1987] is a writer and editor from Dublin. His writing has featured or is forthcoming in various publications – in Ireland, the UK, and the USA – including Boyne Berries, The South Circular, Bare Hands Poetry, wordlegs, Burning Bush 2, The Pickled Body, The Honest Ulsterman, Bare Fiction, Cadaverine, Ink Sweat & Tears, Five [Quarterly], The Squawk Back, Noncanon Press, and theNewerYork.

He has also featured in the anthologies 30 under 30 (Doire Press) and New Planet Cabaret (New Island). In 2013, he was listed for the Fish Short Story Prize and the Over The Edge New Writer of the Year. He was also a finalist in the Uniquely Dublin competition. He is currently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He edits online literary journal The Bohemyth. For more information, visit michaelnaghtenshanks.tumblr.com

Unintended Email Haikus

i.
There’s a man wearing
Birkenstocks beside me, it
is February.

ii.
I’m the weird person
walking around Tesco at
four in the morning.

iii.
Because my country
of origin is the best
excuse for my wrong.

iv.
Irish teenagers
are scarier to me than
French ones: why is that?

v.
I want to attach
an attachment, but I have
nothing to attach.

vi.
Fantastically
Japanese books, cute cartoons,
other shit like that.

vii.
Having eaten the
internal organ of a
tiny calf, I’m sad.

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I Want A New Cinematic Romance: Part 1

In bed, I text you
in brackets (how I really feel)

it’s our Annie Hall on the balcony subtitle scene

how modern
how lonely
(however…)

I don’t want us to become people
who do their drugs in the bathroom
even when they are at home
                                                alone

let’s not kiss like Alfred Hitchcock
characters at the end of films
when all the suspense is