EMERALD BLUE

 

I am dazzled by the knife blade in the sunlight,
my skin cuts easily but the pain is less than I imagined
and as my blood escapes I notice it is less red,
more emerald blue.

I see the history in it, the life and death - it is blood after all -
and as a delta appears on my hand, I resist the urge to lick
or press the wound, waiting for other colours in vain, continuing to
bleed emerald blue.

I hear songs and poetry, see old faces, hear breathing, sense spirits,
noises from a long-distance life, siren wails from wars on streets,
witness splashes of full-colour blood, sepia blood, black blood,
seldom emerald blue.

For this liquid is mine, my protective albumen, my defence, my roots,
an unstoppable slow-flow to mesmerise, to kindle feelings, to remind,
to stimulate a fondness for beginnings, to underline weaknesses, to ease 
feeling emerald blue.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE DECENT, HONEST, TRUTHFUL POLITICIANS GONE?

 I think of the future for my very young grandsons.

Where is today's inspirational leadership?

Name me one politician who eschews personal gain or publicity over giving a shit about the future.

Go on.

You can't.

Because there isn't one. 

ROSA PARKS 4 FEBRUARY, 1913 - 24 OCTOBER 2005

Rosa Parks summed up a significant moment 

in history with these humble words:

“I didn’t get on the bus to get arrested. 

I got on the bus to get home.” 

Montgomery, Alabama, 1955.

The shockwaves of a woman, 

a black woman, 

sitting in that seat

rattled the pedestals 

of the self-appointed white righteous. 

Arrested for “refusing to obey order of bus driver”,

nationality defined as “negro”, 

complexion “black”, 

build “medium”, mug shot “7053”,

this bespectacled 42-year-old, 

five-foot three citizen became an icon of resistance, 

a living symbol

underlining the right in civil rights, 

later awarded medals and remembered on Rosa Parks Day.  

"I got on the bus to get home."

SOME NON-FICTION SUBJECTS IN MY PUBLISHED WRITING PORTFOLIO

As a non-fiction generalist, I write about a wide range of subjects, although I am drawn to cinema-related topics.  Here are some examples over the past ten years or so.

On actor Stephen Boyd

On family matters

On Northern Irish humour columnists

On singer/songwriter David McWilliams

On the golden age of television

On actor James Ellis's short stories

On the closure of British Home Stores (BHS)

On my education

On the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC)

On an old Belfast tourism guide book

On Hollywood's biblical epic movies

On the 1959 film, Ben-Hur

On a 2019 trip to Japan

On autograph collecting

On famous people born on Christmas Day

On Coco the Clown

On actor/comedian Birdy Sweeney

On broadcaster/writer Alan Whicker

On early Hollywood star Thelma Todd

On actor Eddie Byrne

On actor Burt Lancaster

On homelessness and begging in Belfast

and more.

Researching and writing are probably the best fun of all.

Any features editors out there who would like to commission a piece, please contact me at joecushnan@aol.com I will consider any subject. Word count and fee both welcome.

FATHER TRIVIA

My father, for a short while, was a tailor,

not a job that suited him, if you'll pardon me,
but some nights he'd bring home triangular chalk,
the sort that marked cloth, the sort that was a toy to me.

It was velvety to the touch, not like stick chalk,
but great fun on a black or purple writing pad.
I remember little of importance about him
but I recall odds and ends, the trivia of my Dad.

 

 

GULP - A LOVE POEM

💔

My boyfriend swallowed an abacus,

It’s too long to go into why,

He seems a little weird to outsiders

But, though a little bit strange, he gets by.

I love him, I love him, I love him,

I love him in huge amounts,

Whatever this abacus has done to him,

It’s what’s inside that counts.

MOUNTAIN MIST

It is too easy to allow mountain mist to give permission

At times of grief, in grief, because of grief, to influence

And encourage thoughts of God’s winter breath, of angels

Forming a shroud of gauze, of spirits on pilgrimage, of wisdom

And poetic nonsense, when it is simply mountain mist.

But, you know,

Mountain mist is not the only mist.