Sunday 15 June 2014

Their Dad

How they ignore him, scold him loudly
and adore him, love him proudly,
wreck his stuff, make demands,
call his bluff and hold his hands,
test his nerves and call him names
through tennis serves and chasing games,
delegate building of wooden tracks,
beg for swings and piggy backs,
reprimand him, then make up
and command him to wake up,
look for money, shout for lifts,
say he's funny, make him gifts,
take what's his and make it theirs,
offer less and brush his hair,
make him run for miles and miles,
just for fun and small girl smiles,
order biscuits, daily, nightly,
give him kisses, hug him tightly.

(Explanation: It's Father's Day today. My two girls have a great dad who they adore, this is for Martin.)

Friday 6 June 2014

Bon Secours

Holy Mary, mother unmarried, blessed by Angel Gabriel's call
to be the chosen one who carried a baby born to lead them all.
Catholic leaders, priests and nuns, claiming virtues and morals true
mark public enemy number one as "unmarried" mothers who
must be stripped of dignity and freedom, locked away from the world
convicts of ultra vires treason, ripped from baby boys and girls.

Bon Secours means good help translated.
May bon secours never reach my dog:
Unmarried mothers can be incarcerated
but animal rights are enshrined in law.

(Explanation: Just when you think there can't possibly be any more church scandals in Ireland the so-called Mother And Baby homes abuse of single mothers and their children hits the headlines. It's not really news because it was already known about but it has taken decades to get any attention. The collusion of Church and State is one aspect of it but there is also a wider collusion of parents, relations and community members of the pregnant women and girls who were sent to these places. The Journal Article & datbeardyman blog post.

Re-shared in March 2017, on foot of the news about the remains of   over 700 babies and children found in septic tanks on the property of the Bons Secours Mother & Baby Home in Tuam, Co. Galway. Those words 'mother and baby' combined with 'home' are so much at odds with how the Bons Secours nuns actually treated their captives).

Bang On Trend

What they've got in the UK and China,
Brazil and Turkmenistan,
can be found on our own fair island
but it's a place you won't get a tan.
It's not as far as you'd think,
not Germany, New Zealand, The States.
It's where they no longer mine zinc
and where Persephone waits.
Sinkhole fame for all of these sites,
Kilkenny has tunnels to mend,
mining wakes Hades to fight:
Up The Marble! You're bang on trend.

(Explanation: If I were to try and catalogue all the witty comments of @pauldunphy on Twitter we'd be here forever. However, the one that relates to this poem is a tweet of his in which he said to someone he knew who had been caught in a sinkhole, "you're bang on trend." After establishing the person was fine you just have to acknowledge that witty remark!
Kilkenny People article & The Telegraph article)