'Darcy and O'Mara' is a novel by Arthur Cronin.
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Thursday, September 03, 2009

 

Going Underground

This is Karen's view of life:
House and husband make a wife.
Wife and husband join to make
Children who'll keep them awake.

Kids turn people into parents.
Man and wife or those who share tents
Suddenly find they've become
Parents of a child or some

Children they've not met before,
Little people who can roar
Like tiny alcoholic lions,
As sensitive as active mines.

You'll have to tip-toe round the room.
Their eviction from the womb
Will make them prone to fits of rage.
It's clear the play pen is a cage,

A stage for kids to act out plays
And get applause. The parents praise
Every single sound produced
By the captive reading Proust.

He's more advanced than other babies.
For his first photo he could say 'cheese'.
Parents must accept their roles,
Abandon dreams of scoring goals,

Or being birds, graceful larks,
Or growing beards to look like Marx.
Lifelong dreams of being a truck
Invariably become unstuck.

You won't perform for massive crowds
Or sail the skies on fluffy clouds.
You'll be on board the good ship Ground
And there you'll push the kids around

In expensive new wheelbarrows
While single friends fire crossbow arrows
From a yacht when they are drunk,
Or dance all night to jazz and funk.

Karen wants to do these things
Before exchanging wedding rings
And settling down with her new spouse
In their superb suburban house.

She seeks adventure all the time.
She'd rather not commit a crime.
There are legal ways to find
The kind of fun she has in mind.

You don't need yachts or burning cars
Unless you're backed by lucky stars
And pray out loud to bless us, Mary.
Crossbows aren't necessary.

She loves exploring caves and holes
Created by the human moles
Who'd rather tunnel underground
Than make a whispered word-like sound,

Their insufficient contribution
To debates on air pollution.
They won't pollute the air with words
Like interjections dropped by birds.

Other people make them fearful.
Their best pretence at being cheerful
Brings the gas-lit glow of gloom
And silence to a crowded room.

They clear all minds of sunlit bays
And paint depressing winter days
On city streets as afternoon
Performs its final sombre tune.

Night and fog envelop all.
Streetlights fuelled by gas will call
The hidden people to their mass
Where they'll turn solid gold to brass.

They're enthralled by winter nights
When all the city's must-see sights
Cannot be seen. They disappear.
Their absence aids the atmosphere

That makes most people stay inside,
A sense that Death has found his bride
After centuries of waiting
And in their love they're celebrating

Nothingness and emptiness.
It seems like more will soon be less.
Summer days can seem this bleak
When those hole-dwellers start to speak.

They need to hide or run away.
They'd love if night replaced the day,
Replete with fog and sounds of hounds.
The ghosts of dogs mark out their grounds.

With no darkness to confide in,
Without a fog-filled night to hide in,
They use their tunnels to escape
Despair of their life's pear-like shape.

Karen has encountered these
Tunnel-dwelling folk who freeze
When she appears and says 'hello'.
If she smiles as well they'll go.

Some will slowly thaw and talk
Or they'll communicate through chalk.
Once she found a cave that led
To tunnels that filled souls with dread,

But she went on. Adventure beckoned,
Electrifying every second.
She met a group of tunnel folk.
Before she said a word they spoke.

They said they'd formed this force to fight
An evil subterranean blight,
Beings from an ancient race
Who fiercely guard their hidden base.

The rocky ground began to shake
And Karen feared a great earthquake.
She heard a loud, ferocious roar.
The tunnel folk went to their store

Of guns, grenades and ammunition.
They told her she could join their mission.
This adventure, she conceded,
Was much more than she really needed.

She left the tunnel and the cave
Before this place became her grave.
She soon forgot the tunnel's menace
And sought adventure through lawn tennis.






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A Walk in the Rain

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