Geraldine O'Kane - Parallel (Northern Ireland)

from #BreakTheBias by Various

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about

Geraldine O'Kane (she/her) is a Northern Irish poet, creative writing facilitator, playwright and mental health advocate living in Belfast. Her debut full collection 'Unsafe' is available from Salmon Poetry. Geraldine has given a TED Talk for TEDx Belfast, and read at First Fortnight (in association with O'Bheal), Galway's Over The Edge, and Poems Upstairs in association with Poetry Ireland. She was recipient of the Artist Career Enhancement Scheme ‘15/’16 from Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and is currently supported by Arts Council NI.
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lyrics

PARALLEL

Fuelled by her inner alarm
she'd help me rise before dawn
find folded clothes resting by my bedside
eat breakfast waiting at the kitchen table
stepped out into air that still held night
like a child in its arms.

There'd be a crack in the sky
as we entered the loamy womb
of the mushroom house
emerging later -
as clothes from a tumble drier
creased but still wearable
backs aching into the white of morning

to sit in the break room hut
eat a cellophane wrapped lunch
I never saw her make -
salad cream baps, a chocolate biscuit
washed down with a mug of tea.

She'd leave me to school then
we'd meet again at home
where every surface gleamed
the kitchen floor always smelled
like the swimming pool
shimmering in sunlight I felt I could dive in.
Never once did she say we were broke
about to lose everything.