Deb Curreen Author

 We've woken to several news items on the morning of Sunday 15 October, 2023. Firstly, our beautiful country and home, Aotearoa, is blue, politically, which is kind of ironic, blue being the black power gang colour and the National party being so anti-gangs. It was kind of like a gang stand off last night, in a way, all these patched up fullahs, from their respective red and blue gangs, in their fancy suits, shouting threats at each other, trying to take over one another's turf. A turf that has never belonged to them in the first place. Tangatawhenua! The next scary news item is that Iran is warning Israel to back off, "before it's too late". Whatever the hell do they mean? I think we know what the Iranians mean, and it's not good. More fighting over turf.  Two gangs or nations, tribes, families, patched up, shouting and shooting at each other, only this time it's real bullets and not just idle threats. They don't wear leather jackets and their bodies

 I will go down to the beach today, down to the sea on those craggy rocks to stare the waves down, dip my toes in ice cold pacific blue water, to dream for a while and remember you. I will walk alone across the chilly rocks, and stare at a silent ocean that shivers and roils, at the time and tide that is waiting for me. I will find the darkest rock to perch on and hold your life in my arms, as memories of you gather around me,  singing to me in time with the gentle waves lapping at my feet, while the pining seagulls drift on the arctic winds of winter overhead, I imagine the winds blowing down from Ireland today,  I don't know if that's even true. But this is an ode, and we're Irish, so we can say whatever we want to. I will stand by the sea today and watch... the melding colours of aqua depths, swirl, unfettered and free, as I write something new in my head, to take home to the table where I will sit, and think about the books and songs I have yet to write, the stories and