Dedicated to my Mum xxx
THROUGH ELLEN'S EYES
Mum was cleaning in the kitchen
She smashed a plate in disbelief
Wiped the suds onto her dressing gown
And ran upstairs to share her grief.
The radio broke it to him
Dad already knew
I didn’t feel their pain that day
For I was barely two.
Can forty lines of poetry
Condense forty iconic years?
And celebrate a legend,
A legend to his peers.
John Winston Ono Lennon
Requires no introduction
Musician, peace activist, artist
No manufactured production.
Her ‘Favourite Beatle’ my Mum says.
‘Loved him’, she quietly sighs.
“The words were almost irrelevant”
To the crystal memories in her eyes.
I listen to regaled anecdotes
‘Beatle mania’ in Liverpool.
Front page of the Echo
Mum pictured ‘sagging’ Sacred Heart School.
To welcome home her heroes
A Castle Street homecoming joy
‘It was worth the reprimand’
To see her Nowhere Boy.
I begin to realise her honour
To be part of this privileged history.
‘Chapman was a madman,
The world’s eighth mystery’.
A Mersey pride has grown inside
And I truly appreciate
The landmarks our friends flock to
Penny Lane, Mendips, Strawberry Fields gate.
But most of all I’ll remain grateful
For many years to come
To see history through different eyes,
….Ellen’s eyes, not Mum.
