The Best of Men

By Jason Cross

A long time ago,

In Farnham not so far away,

I met young Omid Nooshin,

A foundation formed that day,

Of a friendship (then a blast and new),

Now long and strong,

A state of mind was shared we knew,

And the journey on held fast and true.

I’ve done this for you Omid,

You encouraged me to write,

It’s a rough draft, needs an edit,

But I do hope that it might,

Blow-out the cobwebs of our history,

Invade those memories,

No, not forgotten like a goldfish,

But roots, then trunks, now grown to trees.

From the ground floor of your parents’ house,

We hatched our plots and schemes,

Crafted raps about divinity,

Pondered Star Wars’ inner themes,

He got me into trouble, Om,

In our adventures with each other,

This is hard for me, be patient,

As I loved him like a brother.

He pushed me in the River Wey,

Simply to achieve his shots,

And on a rooftop opposite parliament,

We faced off with armoured cops,

‘Are you two anti-politics?’

Barked from the barrel of their gun,

‘Don’t panic’, Omid calmed them down,

‘We’re scouting for locations,

Just film-makers having fun!’

Fast forward time – life interludes,

Our dreams ran courses altered,

He helped me through some patches rough,

I did the same for him, I hope,

Our bond – it never faltered.

Through all this we had movies,

A common love of celluloid,

And he made me one last passenger,

On a writing trip into the void,

We’d draft a science fiction flick,

Stylish, meaningful, yet fun,

So we holed up in the perfect place,

Debating faults in what’s been done.

Omid, Andy and I...

In offices at Pinewood,

Sharply roasting Ridley Scott,

‘His latest screen endeavour’s rot’,

‘A masterpiece it’s clearly not’,

‘Our Mars adventure’s surely got’,

‘The makings of a classic…. What?!’

‘That sound next door? I’ll check’,

‘It’s Christian Bale… And Ridley Scott!’

‘It’s Ridley Scott, Om, Ridley Scott,

Stop putting down Prometheus Om,

He’s well within earshot!’

(As I’m sure you’ll guess, to Omid,

This intrusion mattered not,

Standing firm by his opinions,

He disliked that film a lot).

But we loved ‘Stars’ from ‘Wars’ to ‘Trek’,

‘Wrath of Khan’ we often quoted,

A prescient scene from which may help me now,

To express what needs emoted,

At the service for his dearest friend,

Kirk addressed his crewmen,

Said, ‘Of all the souls I’ve ever met,

His was the most… human’.

All of us who knew him,

Have a duty to bequeath,

Our stories love and history,

To inform what lies beneath,

The memory of a genius man,

An Elixir for Ava we can be,

A ring of legends of his making,

And hold true his legacy.

To see your star shine bright at BAFTA,

Made me once more your proudest fan,

Had me repeat the way we'd say goodbye,

A simple...Love ya, Man!