Snotgreen
Buck Mulligan: “The Bards noserag. A new art colour for our Irish poets: snotgreen. You can almost taste it, cant you?”
Ulysses- page 5
Deceptive, some things, they are not as they to the eye appear,
The roses fair that grow there, they are not flowers, no but weeds…
Galloping horses on the beach seen there by the unglassed eye,
Upon obtaining spectacles seen as asses and not steeds…
It takes more than a mere mane to make a lion of a cat
It takes more than big horns seen to make a bull of a cow…
Sheep when lambs seek to be seen as pets to avoid butchers knife
See age causes love for them lost, but never understand how.
Free spirits as they portray themselves to others they meet
Are to what they rebel against, or are seen to, but a slave,
Honest face, kind words, open countenance to the world offered
Understood to be lies uttered by the unscrupulous knave
It takes more than just a haircut to make an Englishman
No matter what the Statures of KIlkenny they did say…
Saxons learned to speak the Gaelic when it suited them it to speak
Conquered Irishman learned to speak their Bearla in their own way.
All men utter in their time, is what they seek as to be seen…
Its an image to the world that they offer, a distraction
The man who signs forms with the Saxon looking and sounding name
Is the Gael, who hands it to the Gael of Saxon extraction.
The corporate is the hippie, if not in public, is at heart
The hippies heart beats beats business centered cold, clinical, hard
Men are steps for others to climb on as they walk to the top
Forgotton by who for those who help others climb have regard.
What is your colour, Irish bards, can others your colour taste?
If it were in the hands handkerchief by one neath their nose seen?
Would it be the deepest red of the nosebleed that to the sneeze gave all?
Or of the nose to mean to give freedom to the snot a bright snotgreen?
“Bearla in their own way” – The Irish way of speaking English / Hiberno English and Ulster Scots
“Saxon looking and sounding name” – Irish had to take English versions of their name, such as Smyth for MacGabhann
“Gael of Saxon extraction” – Old English Catholic nationalist / Jacobite.
“Whats your colour, Irish bards?” – What are your principles – self promotion or communal solidarity?
“Hands handerschief” – deeds inspected in self reflection, as one looks at a tissue when their nose has been blown.
“Deepest red of nosebleed” – The struggle of principle which is often at personal cost.
“Nose too mean to give freedom to the snot” – Nasal mucus when in the nose for a long time becomes bright green, means a mean spirited person.