FURTHERMORE
By Gerry Moran
Halloween, pumpkin time, scary time. And am I scared? You bet. I am very scared – but not of ghosts, ghouls or wicked witches. I’m scared of what’s going to happen on Tuesday, November 5 in the US of A. Scared of how the folks over there are going to cast their votes. Are they going to give Kamala Harris the nod or are they going to tick the Trump box? It’ll be close. Very close. On a knife edge we’re told. And I am genuinely scared that Donald Trump will edge it just as Biden edged it four years ago – 0.03% that’s the percentage, I think, of votes that separated them.
I am scared because I believe Donald Trump
is dangerous, delusional and a threat to democracy. And so I might well turn, return I should say, to God to help get Kamala over the line.
In the meantime here are a few facts about American presidents. First off there have been close contests before: John F Kennedy, Democrat (the first Catholic President of the US) beat Richard Nixon, Republican, 49.94% to 49.77% in 1960.
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Lyndon Johnson (1963 – 1968) succeeded Kennedy. Johnson’s family were all called LBJ – he was Lyndon Baines Johnson, his wife was Lady Bird Johnson, his two daughters Linda Bird Johnson and Lucy Baines Johnson while the dog was called Little Beagle Johnson.
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Every US president with a beard has been Republican including Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the US who freed the slaves in 1863. Lincoln‘s mother died when the family dairy cow ate poisonous mushrooms and Mrs Lincoln drank the milk.
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Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham, was present at the assassination of three US presidents: Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley.
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John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the US had a pet alligator which he kept in the White House. He swam in the Potomac River every morning – naked.
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Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton were both adopted.
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Gerald Ford was the only president never to have been elected as president or vice-president.
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James Madison (1809 – 1817) was the first president to wear long trousers; all the previous presidents wore knee breeches.
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And so to switch subject. Two days after Halloween Christian faiths celebrate All Souls Day when they believe that the souls in Purgatory are released to their loved ones for one night.
I have great affection for that belief as it led to me having my very first poem published in the New Irish Writing page of the Irish Press, edited by David Marcus who launched the careers of numerous well-known Irish writers and who gave me the confidence that I could write – something I’m still doing almost 50 years later.
The year was 1977 and I had just come home after a few pints in Mickey Brennan’s (now The Field) my local at the time. I sat with my mother for a while and this is what ensued:
All Souls Night
It’s late
Time for bed and dreams
My mother tidies, sweeps:
‘Put a block on the fire, boy
The poor souls will be here tonight.’
They’ll not be cold
I tell myself: my father,
Aunts Katie, Lizzy
And my mother’s mother
Whom I never knew.
They will be welcome
At this warm hearth
Where once they aired
Our vests and socks
Fresh smelling wool and cotton
For our Saturday night
Bath- night skin.
My father’s chair is empty, waiting
I can hear his cough, smell
The cigarette end between his thumb
And burnt forefinger, as he turns
Another page of some old yellowed
Western, a smile all over
His engrossed face.
I don’t suppose
It happens really
I do and don’t believe
But just in case
The block is on
And lighting
And everything’s right.
