Being Real

Himself was up bizarrely early this morning, waiting for the builder to arrive and start work on our front path and the 17 steps to the street: they've deteriorated in the 50 or so years we've lived here to a point where I fear for the safety of all our elderly friends, to say nothing of our elderly selves ... though in fact we're used to them. Anyway, the builder didn't come till we'd finished lunch, so that was a pain. I avoided joining him, however, and stayed in bed till a more civilised hour.

The rest of the morning was busy. Domestic busy - something I realise I often avoid, especially in the summer, because I always have this feeling that if I'm not a work (teaching, for instance) I must be on holiday... But today I hung out two lots of washing, dealt with the brambles (red juice everywhere - most alarming) and stewed some rhubarb I'd almost forgotten about, lest it rot in a corner. For those who made suggestions about the berries - we don't eat much jam, as it requires something like a scone to support it; marmalade is really the only thing that gets used in this house. So I don't make jam or jelly, nor do I make a crumble (I find them sinking) - I use them as a compote and have them in a glass topped with yogurt and sometimes a sprinkle of granola. This lot didn't seem particularly woody, so most of them have been frozen whole; one lot I smushed though a sieve and will use the delicious, slightly ginny mush over something...

After lunch I went out to the chemist for a prescription and then went to see my friend Paddy; we ended up having a brisk walk along the East Bay prom to Kirn and back. That's the photo - I suddenly saw this familiar place looking picturesque. 

But my title? 

I wonder if any of you use the BE REAL app. I was introduced to it by Catriona, eldest grandchild, and eventually her parents and her sister Anna joined in; on the Waverley the other day her cousin Alan asked if he could be my friend on it too. At any time during the day you receive the command on your phone, or your smart watch: Be real now! You have two minutes... And in theory you drop everything and take a two-way photo: what you're looking at and - it appears in the top corner of the image - what your face is doing too, unless you manage to get it out of range. Strangely compelling only because it's family, as far as I'm concerned - they're very funny. Anyway, it made me write the first poem I've wanted to write in ages, so here's its debut, just for you:

Be Real
 Sitting at my desk, unusually
in the late afternoon, 
on a day neither fair nor foul
but lingering cooly in between
I realise a sudden text
which tells me just “Be Real”
is making me do something else
which isn’t really me. 

But I obey, as if turned on
by some unnoticed switch
because my being real allows
a glimpse of someone else 
just Being Real at this same time
unless of course reality
is more fascinating than a moment
of being them, for me.

C.M. 08/23