‘Blue Sky’, a poem

I started a series of poems a while ago, which drew on apparent links between my own experiences and films I’d watched in the past – often the distant past. The idea seemed promising but the intended series petered out after 3-4 poems. This one refers to ‘Blue Sky‘, a 1994 Tony Richardson film for which Jessica Lange won an Oscar. It was originally published in Bindweed’s ‘Midsummer Madness’ anthology in 2023.

Blue Sky

I watched at night, alone and tired.
A 1960s Air Force base
where Hank, the Dad, a scientist in uniform, 
is under pressure in his work: 
DC, the Soviets, the hierarchy; directions 
he would influence, but can’t.

Carly—Mum—is beautiful, unmoored: 
parties, picnics, jaunts, her feet don’t touch the ground;
then she won’t say a word, 
locked in a dark and private world.
Their daughter keeps a diary, keeps herself apart:
Mum can’t be like the other mums.

Hank tries to steer Carly to a calm; he can’t.
He’s loving, loyal, angry, scared, ashamed. The daughter too. 
They’re hurting: hopes unmet and seldom held.
The pressures amplify: the Colonel, teenage years
and politics. Then Carly goes too far
in full view of the base and of her girl.

Hank’s taciturn becomes enraged,
hits out and has to be restrained.
But violence only reconfirms his powerlessness.
The Colonel schemes to bury him 
with lies, disgrace and Nembutal. 
The world’s against them all. 

Only a loyal, crazy soul that spits 
on circumstance can save them now; and so 
mad Carly gallops into danger—rescues Hank; 
but as the credits roll we know nothing has changed: 
she cannot save herself, her family; 
no more than I could hope to salvage mine.