'I wrote a poem about my son - years later it appeared on his exam paper'

[muriel_volestrangler]

When Emily Cullen picked up her son after his English exam, she assumed the smile on his face meant things had gone well.

Instead, the Galway poet was about to discover that a poem she had written seven years earlier, and which was inspired by him, had appeared on the paper.

"He had a big, broad smile on his face and I thought, 'Oh that's good. He must have remembered some Shakespeare quotes'," Cullen said.

But he said "you won't believe it mum - the poem you wrote about me came up in the paper".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj4gd2eyvp1o

I love this bit:

His mother said he initially wondered whether to answer the question in the first person, given he had inspired the poem, but eventually decided the examiner might not believe him.

"So he responded in the third person, which was probably quite a wise decision," Cullen said.

[UpInArms]

1. That is lovely

I'm calling my son from the end of the estate
when my eye snags on green pastel words.
He has chalked on the pavement:
The world is great

This is just the line I need to read,
my mother in hospital, my shoulder inflamed,
future employment uncertain,
Earth eyeballing Armageddon.

Yet how right, his perception.
He bolts up on his yellow scooter,
eight-year old fringe quiffed with gel,
on the cusp of the age of cool.

Emily Cullen has published three collections, No Vague Utopia and In Between Angels and Animals (Arlen House) and Conditional Perfect (Doire Press)

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/poem-of-the-week-envoi-in-chalk-1.4093441

[erronis]

2. Thank you. 'Tis indeed lovely.