A ROMANTIC AULD EJEIT

Nat King Cole sings
Autumn Leaves
on the radio - in Japanese

My mother
falls in love
with it

I fail to find it for her
this being
pre-Internet days

so I sing it for her
making up
the Japanese words

I sing
different words
every day

sing she says...
"My...Donie's knee!"
'cos that how it sounds

which is what
we call it
after hearing it only the once

"Share it with Yuku!"
I sing whatever
comes to mind

"Oh more each day!"
the words have a life
of their own

when I have grown
to be this
man I am

I learn the proper Japanese
but she still thinks
I'm making it up

now here in her dying
she says sing me
"My  Donie's knee!"

so I sing
in my broken
Japanese

she squeezes my hand
whispers
softly...

"You were always
a romantic
auld eejit!"

"Ma doe day knee
Shari e yuku
Ha me kay no

Haré hi yo
Oh
mo e day...."

AND I ONLY THE MOST RECENT INCARNATION

thousands of voices
flowing through my head
the ancestors are restless

I borrow their faces
use their voices
inhabit this present

let them live
through me
I a cast of many

and who
will borrow my face
many ages from now

thousands of voices
flowing through my head
the ancestors are restless

I borrow their faces
use their voices
inhabit this present

let them live
through me
I a cast of many

and who
will borrow my face
many ages from now

COMING IN FROM THE COLD

searching
in a second-hand shop
among the bric-a-brac

I found you
in a white Mac
I in a white Mac too

as if
we were both
spies

& had arranged to meet
here to hand over
secret dossiers

I kissed
the top of your head
as I always do

‘cos that’s how
far you
come up to

“The secret word
is Love! ”
I whisper into your hair

“Love! ” you echo
as if it actually were
a prearranged signal

although
only chance
had brought us here

us two
secret
agents

in the  sacred
espionage
of Love

WANTED:

run down human
being
heartbroken

at the end of a tether
wannabe poet
sixty somethingish

must have own mind
Irish or at the very least
able to do the accent

be unable to tell
a lie  & must have
the double initials D.D.

must have seven heads
"Begobs..!" says I
to myself says I

the very job for me!"
I could do it standing on
one of my heads

apply within it said
and so I did on a whim
the job was mine

as long as I could be
all seven of my selves
...simultaneously

TO WOOF OR NOT TO WOOF

There wasn't a word
out of the room.

The furniture
was silent

didn't say anything
at all.

A drunken chair
leaned over and

touched the floor
with an arm.

A tipsy table stood up
on its hind legs

looking very very guilty
at being caught thus.

Books ran all about
the floor

like birds that couldn't
fly.

A glass looked shattered.
Milk raced across lino.

"Wot...wot!"
barked Hamlet

the great Dane

trying to look
innocent

lifting his leg
peeing against the wallpaper.

THE ME I AM

I laugh
with a dead man’s laugh
(a man I never knew)  

my grandfather’s laughter
flowering like Springtime
blossoming in my mouth

not
listening
to the years

Time
joins the dots
Painting by Numbers

I see
with my mother’s eyes
the world

stealing into my mind
become music
anything it chooses

Time joins the dots
Painting
by numbers

This gesture
is my big sisters
gathering me

up into her
nearness
tenderness

Time
joins the dots
Painting by Numbers

My father’s love
beats in my heart
sings in everything

it touches
amuses
me to see

how I am
all those others
as well as me

Time joins the dots
Painting
by Numbers

FESTINA LENTE FESTINA LENTE
(for Bud the Brian)

Up the Green Road
under an arch of sunlight & leaves

I travel through Time & Space
mastering speed.

Balance still a little odd
as I try to...cycle faster...keep up with my Dad

who is forever far ahead
calling: “Come on,Dónall – that’s the lad! ”

All that time I am
that eternal summer

always

struggling to learn

how to do

7 x Tables
(tie my shoe)
master bicycles.

Down the Green Road
under an arch of Time & Autumn

I cycle faster with the wind
behind me...calling to the man

who languishes forever
far behind me:

“Come on, Dad...”

“Take it easy, Dónall lad! ”

*
Festina Lente is the Latin for Hurry Slowly!