Things I’ve Learned in My 65th Year! _ Gerry Hancock

Things I’ve Learned in My 65th Year!

There are, it seems,
Only 20 to 25,000 polar bears left in the wild.

Baby vomit projectiles still fly at exactly
1km per hour quicker than you can.

Niall Toibin died today and surprised many
Who thought him already dead.

A school inspection is still a scary thing for all -
Except the “retired” substitute teacher.

In the Dáil an idiot took his lead from Trump and Johnson
And embarrassed us all and shamed himself.

If all the change in my wallet was laid to end to end
It would still only stretch from here to there.

My Childhood By Gaye Gannon

My Childhood

By Gaye Gannon

Even though I was the youngest of seven children I ended up being raised like an only child in a one-parent situation by my quite elderly father. Would I change that-------never. I feel I had the best of both worlds-my father all to myself, which changed the dynamics of all the previous father/child relationships within our house dramatically, and also all the hilarious stories now recounted on family occasions that are only vague memories to me.

We can all relate to being bet out of bed because “The cattle are in the vegetable garden again, stacking turf in Red Pat’s turf house and bringing the cattle home from the field behind Sweeneys. I, though, never had the privilege/torture of having to milk a cow or feed geese or chickens like the older ones. I remember hearing one sister at a family gathering, admittedly after a glass or five of ‘lemon sherbet’ state emphatically to another “Sure you made me milk your cow while you did my homework. Is it any wonder I thought I was thick”.

Having watched my own two grow up and hearing the “I’ll die if I can’t play Play Station” statement on more than one occasion, I often wonder what they would have made of my childhood, isolated, no ‘mod cons’ and elevated to the role of housekeeper at the age of nine when Mammy died. Did it annoy me?......Yes. Would I change it?.....not in a million years.

A Welcome Back to Bantry Bay by Una Kelly

Intimacy - agape
Tears dropping by the roundabout
Paint the picture in words

Suburban landscape
Sunday morning returning home from visiting
Father singing his favourite song
Touched my inner being at
ten years old
Overwhelmed by the intimacy and profundity of the moment
Forever etched in time

He too surprised and overcome
Placed his hand
In mutual acknowledgement
Of the enormity and permanency
of the moment

It would sustain absence

Banality
Profundity
Hindsight
A meeting of souls

Tenderness
Hand reassured
Childhood adulthood
Boundaries merged

A Grandson by Una Kelly

A Grandson
A Nana
Me

I read recently that a grandmother’s
Responsibility
Is to pass on the traditions and lore of the family.

I am in possession of family lore
I swim in momentos
Being only ... enriches

I quake at the thought
I jump to the ready

I will visit for three full days
One for each trimester

I will bear gifts as the Magi
What will the wisest be?

Adagio was adage
The Magi story
Is our story

Life continues
Life goes on

On either side of water
We keep our promises