Heroes
by Steven McCabe
Heroes in a time of heroes
Return Now to the wild.
I juxtaposed an image from The Book of Kells with a photo found online showing friends or neighbours (or actors) eating dinner on TV trays in front of a television ‘set.’
My father told me once our family had the first television ‘set’ on the block. Yet still my parents and the neighbours, in the new subdivision built on chewed-up farmland, socialized on the street, in lawn chairs, late on summer nights beneath the stars (no glare of streetlights yet). Ice cubes, shaken from metal trays cracked open with a handle, floated in iced coffee served in metal drinking glasses. Sometimes my mother would call me to empty the glass ashtray. Glass and metal and dark. They remembered something about then.
Then felt closer to in the beginning.
Originally this post contained an oblique rhyming poem I edited, in real time throughout the day, down to two lines (above). This is writing to go with the images. It’s not a ‘received’ poem.
Violaine my prism-eyed darling
Golden-robed & ink-wash thin
Walk me deep into that winding forest
Bind my heart as it shudders and spins.
True love, true love, I whisper
As eagles on stallions arrive
No need to rescue me fierce-creatures-of-fire
Violaine heaving inhales – preparing to dive.
Moonlight on dark waters
Blood surging in golden beehives
The winding forest blown over
As eagles on stallions arrive.
Violaine your fingers crooked
One silver nail broken in clay
True love, true love, I whisper
Coffee cooling on my TV tray.
In Now rescue me fierce-creatures-of-fire
In Now touch that dial
Heroes in a time of heroes
Return Now to the wild.
Water flowing across me washes
This recalcitrant heart in my bones
Maybe we’ll meet in Heaven though I am a sinner
For another TV dinner.
poemimage 
Hauntingly beautiful Steven. I adore the poetry as much as your memories of early days. In the beginning, glass, metal and dark a time of honesty,
My morning online prayer session today, Pray As You Go, always begins with a song, Todays song was ‘Voici le Temps’ (Now is the time) sung by the Monks of Keur Moussa. Perhaps Now, is the time to go back to the beginning and return, bathed in a new coat of light.
Thank you Teri. I was moved this morning after waking to find your words. I’m glad this means something to you. I hacked away at it yesterday trying to harmonize the poem and the anecdote and the memory. I listened to the hymn. It feels sacred, perhaps because it is, so very beautiful and unique. I’ll listen to the Monks of Keur Moussa again. A new coat of light sounds like a fine idea. Your thoughts frame this in a new coat of light. Thank you again.