Droichead Diaries | June 2020

JUNE 2020

Droichead Diaries

Droichead Diaries is an open invitation to write to us and tell us about a typical or random day from your lock-down experience. From age 8 to 80, we want to know what your experience has been like.

This project is part of our #DroicheadConnects programme, and is a collaboration with author Nicola Pierce, our 2020/21 Artist in Association and Dani Gill, our Literary Audience Development Officer.

Whether you are a student, a front line worker, a parent, a young person or someone cocooning, we would like to hear from you.

This online publication contains three entries from the first round of submissions, real stories shared by real people, but we still want to hear from you through July and August.

Please email us in the format of a diary entry, and at a maximum of 500 words, at droicheadarts2020@gmail.com and your lock-down story may be published online and in the Drogheda Independent.

Droichead Arts Centre

www.droichead.com

20th March 2020 LOCK OUT

Arriving with a giddiness in your belly and excitement in your veins.

Praying inside that he’ll be awake.

Squinting through the nursing home window obscured by the sun’s rays Navigating a cobweb and my own distorted reflection. I see him.

His deep brown eyes looking up struggling to make out where you are or who you are?

But there is a smile.

The vulnerability in his faint voice, the sadness he omits in each whisper. You watch every slow hand action he makes casting you to be still and you wonder does he sense YOU being there? Does he know who you are?

Where has this strong gentle soul gone? Declining before you each day, not being able to stroke his hair, hold his hand, hug his slight bones as he weeps .The beauty of touch and how it can calm is taken from you, but the call from a carer

“I’ll hold his hand for you “. Consumes you with gratitude and brings you so much peace. Thank you to those who care, you are truly blessed

-Eimear Cullen | 49 years old | Drogheda

12th June 2020 RIOTS AND RIPPLES The world was built on love not hate How could you put a bullet in them all mate?

It’s only the start of 2020 and we’ve fucked up We riot and follow like an obedient pup Tamir Rice was 12 years old when he was shot Told to “raise his arms and not move” He had a toy gun with the orange cap off, he was welcomed with a red dot He was a young kid and now he’s spitting from above Trayvon Martin looked suspicious after paying for food A person called the cops and his blood went blue He wasn’t questioned, just shot This will not stand and will thankfully be fought Another man is Oscar Grant He was pinned down and shot in the back This police denied it and twisted it on a slant Poor Oscar was pumped in the back and didn’t survive the attack George Floyd is the most recent, his neck was crushed Three police officers watched as he died and blood gushed Riots ensued and his baby girl was left with a void His last words were “I can’t breathe” We stand together with one emotion, we are truly joined All the world was left to shout and grieve All these individuals are cast out due to a pigment Racism is just a fucking figment We learnt it but it can be unlearnt All that separates us is a wall Build some ladders and give the other side a call We are all the same but we are divided No one is different so please don’t hide it Everyone is beautiful in their own way Now stand up and shout what you want to say!

Black lives matter!

- Matthew Maloney | 17 years old | Mornington

5th June 2020 PANDEMIC REMEDY I woke up with a vague sense of tension and definitely not much energy. What’s new!?

I just seem to have lost my usual zip these days. I have a lot to do and generally get most of it done. It’s far from a high priority for me, but despite no one coming to the house because of Covid-19 these days, there is still always housework to do, as well. It feels like things are just piling up on me a bit lately.

I read a bit of BBC News on my phone before I got out of bed and checked the weather, too. It said it’d be cloudy all day, though with the sun we’ve been having I wouldn't complain. But when I opened the curtains it was all such a lot of gray! As my husband was still asleep, I quietly snuck downstairs.

After I fed Macy, our cat, I put on a fleece and went outside to check the newly sown grass and a little patch of wildflowers also recently planted. They were both coming on well. I curled up in a lawn chair on our little deck by the picket fence. There was a fresh breeze on my face, as I looked at the river below, which was missing the sparkle from the sun – kind of like me! The arches of the viaduct over the Boyne looked so perfectly formed and the fresh green of the newly unfurled foliage was gorgeous. The sparrows and wrens were chirping and flitting about, as the seagulls soared and glided and squawked and shrieked from above.

All rather idyllic - even with the dull grayness, but that general sense of tension was still with me. I felt groggy and just couldn’t get going. So, I indulged myself with picking up Macy, who had come to investigate now that she’d finished her breakfast. She’d recently become an outside cat because of my asthma, so I'm not really supposed to pick her up anymore. But with not being able to get hugs from our family here in town because of social distancing, the comfort of kitty cuddles was what my getting-nowhere-fast spirit needed. I recognized that I've been struggling the last couple of weeks - trying to be strong and just getting on with it all, but it was all feeling a bit much at this point.

When I finally got my body going and into the shower, quite unexpectedly tears started flowing as fast as the water. I couldn't tell you why I was crying, but the release of these tears felt so good! It's always good to get them out and wash away the upsets, just like the hot water washed away the tension in my shoulders. Guess I've discovered a new remedy for the Pandemic: free flowing tears in a hot shower . . . and don't forget the kitty cuddles, too!

- Dawn Staudt | 68 years old | Cord Road, Drogheda