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Donall Dempsey Dec 2024
THE WHO OF WHAT WE ARE

the fog strips us
right down to our
voices only

leaves out the shape or
the skin we're in &
even what *** we are

we lose society's
references
how it elects to see us

stumble around in
this cotton wool
& somehow now

we re-emerge
our selves
tentatively again

you most definitely  
woman
I made man again

white skin
embracing
black skin

nothing now
but
love
Donall Dempsey Dec 2024
THE VERB “TO IS! ”

You ask me
politely

“What please
is the difference

between the verb
“to be”

& the verb
“to is”

“? ”

I laugh.

And you frown.

Pout.

“Laugh please
not at me! ”

“I have the desire
to learn learning! ”

“I’m sorry...forgive me! ”
“I do too! ”

And today
you give me

the gift
of the verb

“to is! ”

I hating
to correct

your lovely
words

when I love
what they do

teasing the language
(fire from embers)

as they glow
anew.

Always & forever
my love

is the
verb

“to is!
Donall Dempsey Dec 2024
TAKING BACK THE MOMENT

the past sleeps
like a giant in a palace
made of years

a moment...thought
lost for ever
sunbeams trapped in a room

they flick and dart
all over the ceiling
goldfish in a goldfish bowl

memory dares
to waken the sleeping giant
demanding the sunbeams being goldfish

from somewhere in the palace
made of years and tears
the Past produces the moment

"Here...take it!" the Past rasps
begrudgingly giving it back
I take the moment and flee

far far
into the future
where nothing can touch me
Donall Dempsey Dec 2024
THE MOST HUMAN THING THERE IS

I watch intently
in my mind’s eye
an ancient Egyptian

scribe take up his pen
and write:
“My heart is in balance with yours.”

and laugh
at how
not an iota of love

has changed
since that then
& this now

through seconds
or centuries
Love flies

through hieroglyph
to cursive
English script

Love
the most human thing
there is
Donall Dempsey Dec 2024
THAT LONG LOST CHRISTMAS NIGHT

our "I LOVE YOU!"'s
journey through the frosted air
dissolving in each other

we watch our words
travel across frosted space
our eyes hearing them

the words hung in the air
there
for all to see

our words
strung out upon the night
Christmas decorations

we like two dragons
labour to build
one snowman...one snow woman

we speak in speech
bubbles...word baubles
decorate the night

our words frozen
in memory's light
that long lost Christmas night
Donall Dempsey Dec 2024
LEARNING TO BE. . .

been dead a week
before I knew it

thought the world had gone
a bit transparent

people walking through me
like ghosts

only I was the ghost
just couldn't get used to it

bit boring being dead
nothing much to do

except hang around old haunts
and try to remember who

the hell I am
who I used to be

and what

happens now
I mean is there a part 2 or what

or is this it

and when does Heaven arrive
or

does it?

I watch the rain
falling through me

my 3 year old cries
her tears hurt me

I want to cry but
- can't:

*

A friend of mine "died' for a couple of minutes and I asked her did she float to the ceiling and look down upon her self or go towards a beautiful bright light at the end of the tunnel only to be turned back? Instead she said she saw herself as her own ghost trying to get used to "this being dead lark" and watching her little girl crying over her. She thought: ".. if this is the afterlife...it *****!" and made a conscious effort to come back and come back she did! Dying wasn't for her! She is at the moment living...happily ever after.
Donall Dempsey Dec 2024
HEART GALLERY

you step forth
from your bath
as if

you were
a Bonnard
come alive

spread yourself
across crisp cool sheets
as sensationally

sensuous
as a Modigliani ****
or a Noguchi sculpture

here you
Matisse
if only

for a brief
moment now so
Ernst

now so
playfully
Picasso...ish

I smile
as you
Vermeer

"Come here & kiss me!"
you my Magritte
you my Dali

You my laughing
walking talking
'art gallery
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