Domestic Verses

Don’t be misled by a sense of ‘home’, or just a rummage through life by Olivia McMahon. Here she conveys facets of life both from a local and international stage. Her observations reveal an intrigue, a need within her for the settling of things. Witness lively to solemn affairs: the comic squabble in a tenement flat, the joie de vivre of a well-endowed aunt, to a cold take on pacifism, feminism and love. Add, of course, a little dash of holidays and cooking.

Colours

Blue is a patch of sky.
Look up, you said, remember this for ever.

Green is the green
of the mosses in the forest,
soft and luminous,
that time we thought
would be our last.

And then yellow,
cruel yellow, covering the walls,
yellow curdling inside me
as I waited for your return.

But red — the shout in the dark —
red is the colour that drives us.

Bio: Olivia McMahon has written two novels and two short thrillers available on the internet (ebooksWorld.de). She has also published two EFL textbooks on English grammar and pronunciation. As a poet she has been widely published in magazines north and south of the border. In 2004 she was part of the hugely successful Thirsty Lunch event at the Edinburgh Fringe. She is also a major performer at fund-raising events for Amnesty International.