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2.7k · Sep 2019
CECI N'EST PAS UNE ORANGE
Donall Dempsey Sep 2019
CECI N'EST PAS UNE ORANGE

A Parisian orange
lay bang in the middle of the street.

I couldn't have avoided it
this orange of all oranges

lost & stranded

but still as
big & bold & bright

as a new found sun
in an unknown solar system.

It invisible to all
bicycles cars and feet.

A cat gave it
a cursory glance.

The soundtrack of Paris
happening just off stage.

Now everyone had vanished
except me & this orange.

Somehow it found
its way to my head

& unraveled itself
in a concentric spiral

a swirl of orange peel
& white pith

like a Can-Can
dancer's skirt.

I ate it.

Oblivious
to everything else

my first
French

orange.

A Parisian orange
lay bang in the middle of the street.

I couldn't have avoided it
this orange of all oranges

lost & stranded

but still as
big & bold & bright

as a new found sun
in an unknown solar system.

It invisible to all
bicycles cars and feet.

A cat gave it
a cursory glance.

The soundtrack of Paris
happening just off stage.

Now everyone had vanished
except me & this orange.

Somehow it found
its way to my head

& unraveled itself
in a concentric spiral

a swirl of orange peel
& white pith

like a Can-Can
dancer's skirt.

I ate it.

Oblivious
to everything else

my first
French

orange.
Donall Dempsey Jul 2018
LOUE LABOURS WONNE
( for Kyle and Laura )

we have
as Shakespeare says

"...neglected time..."
like all lovers we

lost in the kiss
eclipsed the hours

that strive to contain
us leaving Time

to sulk
tapping a toe

waiting upon us so
the world can continue

but ha - do we care
we care - not

for the ticking of the clock
and all earthly what nots

our souls
gone AWOL

our laughter
staining the air

like music we
but away "...away

the scene begins
to cloud..."

and leave these lovers
to do without much ado

what they
will
2.6k · Aug 2018
SHOPPING LIST
Donall Dempsey Aug 2018
SHOPPING LIST

after the funeral
your fingerprint lives on
in a jar of Pond's Cold Cream

a shopping list
dug out of a drawer
now a precious artifact

I an emotional archaeologist
unearthing a smile
buried in the past

all our I wills
become the past
tense

the touch of your skin
still so real to me
a teardrop trickles into my ear

Death
unreals you then
makes you more real

I call your mobile
just to hear you say
you are not there
Donall Dempsey Feb 2018
THE VERY THING IT WAS REQUIRED TO BE SHOWN
( for J.L )

"I like birds
more than books."

a young Edward
Thomas thinks

scribbling it
in bad Latin

on the fly leaf of
an algebra book.

A chaffinch chuckles.

"Vink...vink...vink!" it urges
in a regional accent.

"Fringilla Coelebs!"
Edward addresses it.

"Sheld-appel...spink..blue cap!"
the bird disowns its names

content with being
itself and itself

only.

It looks as if it has
just stepped out of the 15th century

illuminated maunuscript
The Shelbourne Missal.

"A caterpillar skeletonising a leaf
mmm...breakfast mefinks!"

The year  1895
madly in love with its own

sunlight
never such sunlight

as this
the window holds the scene

as if it were
a living painting.

The bird behind the glass
poetry in just being.

The torture of
an algebra class

"Quod erat demonstrandum."
***Reading Jean Moorcroft Wilson's wonderful biography EDWARD THOMAS -FROM ADLESTROP TO ARRAS. I was struck by the tiny detail of the algebra book. A chaffinch had just landed on our bird table and had its fill of suet. So I imagined Thomas longing for escape from algebra in the glory of this common bird. The chaffinch is of course busy being a chaffinch and busy eating its favourite food...a juicy defoliating caterpillar. It has no notion of its human names and only knows the poetry of being itself.

The title comes from the Greek translation of the phrase rather than the Latin ( which yields, "what was to be demonstrated")which methinks is more apt.

To myself in the De La Salle Academy in Kildare in an equally sunny day in my own time...it was always...Quite Easily Done! Alas Algebra and all its Mathematical kin were never kind to me and it was never easily done.

The chaffinch was once popular as a caged song bird and large numbers of wild birds were trapped and sold. At the end of the 19th century trapping even depleted the number of birds in London parks. In Britain the practice of keeping chaffinches as pets declined after the trapping of wild birds was outlawed by the Wild Birds Protection Acts of 1880 to 1896.

In 1882 the English publisher Samuel Orchart Beeton issued a guide on the care of caged birds and included the recommendation:

"To parents and guardians plagued with a morose and sulky boy, my advice is, buy him a chaffinch."

Competitions were held where bets were placed on which caged chaffinch would repeat its song the greatest number of times. The birds were sometimes blinded with a hot needle in the belief that this encouraged them to sing.

The chaffinch is still a popular pet bird in some European countries. In Belgium, for example, the traditional sport of Vinkenzetting pits male chaffinches against one another in a contest for the most bird calls in an hour.

Hardy's THE BLINDED BIRD rails against this habit of blinding in order to sing more fully.

"Who hath charity? This bird.
Who suffereth long and is kind,
Is not provoked, though blind
And alive ensepulchred?
Who hopeth, endureth all things?
Who thinketh no evil, but sings?
Who is divine? This bird."

In Irish it is Rí-rua...red king or king of the wild. As well as it's blue crown it has rusty red underparts or underpants as my Uncle Michael called them which would account for the rusty or red part of its name.
***

For half a day there was now a world of snow, a myriad flakes falling, a myriad rising, and nothing more than the sound of rivers; and now a world of green undulating hills that smiled in the lap of the grey mountains, over which moved large clouds, sometimes tumultuous and grey,  sometimes  white and slow, but always fringed with fire. When the snow came, the mountains dissolved and were not. When the mountains were born again out of the snow, the snow seemed but to have polished the grass,  and put a sharper sweetness in the song of the thrush and the call of the curlew, and left the  thinnest of cirrus clouds upon the bare field, where it clung only to the weeds.

Edward Thomas – BEAUTIFUL WALES( 1905)

“….words of landscape…landscapes are what I seem to be  made for…nearly all  of it without humanity except what it may owe to a lanky shadow of myself – I stretch over big landscapes just as my shadow does at dawn…”

Letter to Bottomley
Donall Dempsey Jan 2017
THE RETURN OF DUM MAARO DUM
( for Driftwood )


She dances
upon her tippy toes

upon my toes
whirling 'bout the room

to DUM MAARO DUM
she my little Bollywood queen.

"Again...again....again!" she squeals
mad with childish delight.

Asha sings to us
and we...dance!

Sunlight throws itself
at our feet.

We dance upon it.

Summer gasps
holds its breath.

There is nothing but
the music....and us!

She is all
of three

screaming: "Bollywood me...Bollywood me!"

"This...won't....get the dinner done!"
screams Mum above the fun.

The record screechs
and scratches ...ouch...off!

I cut cuecumbers
into tiny tiny pieces.

Tilly washes spinach and lettuce.

But when Mum
goes to answer the phone

it's her best chum
she will be hours

we sneak Asha
back into the kitchen.

The return of. . .

"Dum maaro dum
Mit jaaye gham
Bolo subaha shaam
Hare Krishna hare Krishna hare Krishna Hare Ram!"
The great R.D(Rahul Dev)Burman lovingly known as Pancham. This is his  song from the film Hare Rama Hare Krishna( 1971 ) sung by his wife Asha Bhosle along with Usha Iyer and chorus. We had no idea what we were singing! We just loved the sounds and music! The hit for us was the joy and delight it brought to our little English kitchen ....making the salad exciting! Pancham and Ashe loved cooking and would have cooking competitions between them. Oh those evergreen Hindi songs!
"Piya tu ab to aa jaa, hey hey hey hey!"( wot great crazy panting and the cry of "Monica darling!") was another great favourite as was Nahin Nahin Abhi and Sun Sun Didi Didi. Then there was one in which a drummer scatted his tik takka tick to her and another with I LIKE YOU kept breaking in in English only to change to I LOVE YOU by the end! And her high pitched voice contrasted with a deep gravelly growly male voice was just so much fun! It's only with the Internet that I can see what we were singing and get translations! Oh our world was so....innocent back then as Hindi and its swirl of music hath us enthralled.


Dum maaro dum
Mit jaaye gham
Bolo subaha shaam
Hare Krishna hare Krishna hare Krishna Hare Ram
Dum maaro dum
Mit jaaye gham
Bolo subaha shaam
Hare Krishna hare Krishna hare Krishna Hare Ram


Take another hit

Take another hit*, all your worries will disappear
From morning to night sing, “Hare Krishna Hare Ram!”*

What has the world given us?
What have we taken from the world?
Why should we worry about anyone?
What has anyone done for us?

Take another hit, all your worries will disappear
From morning to night sing, “Hare Krishna Hare Ram!”

Whether we want to live or die
We won’t be afraid of anyone
The world won’t be able to stop us
For we will do what we want
2.6k · May 2015
SHADOW PLAY
Donall Dempsey May 2015
red dragonfly
a haiku
happening

dragonfly's shadow
hovers above
the poet's words

his pen does not
dare to breath
dragonfly reading his words

his hand now
moving fast
dragonfly's shadow caught in words

dragonfly hovers
forever held in ink
the shadow of herself
https://youtu.be/swMpihgFDA4
2.6k · Mar 2019
THURSDAY MARKET
Donall Dempsey Mar 2019
THURSDAY MARKET

Motorway sign says:
"THIS SIGN IS NOT WORKING."

Sign coming into town says{
"THURSDAY MARKET."

Reality appears to be
broken.

And there they all are
long forgotten Thursdays

that nobody wants
no more.

So many used Thursdays to
choose from.

A much used Thursday
from 1963.

A forlorn Thursday
from 1863.

Thursdays come and
gone.

No one will want a Thursday
their dog died

or the wife
left them

or the Wi-fi
went off.

Rainy Thursdays
that nobody wanted

even as they were
happening.

But there's a big rush on
the Thursday to come.

Everyone wants to have
one.

We leave the Thursday
market

with the next Thursday
in the bag so to speak.

It's up to us
to make a good go of it.

It ticks away.
Time tickles.

Motorway sign says:
"THIS SIGN NOT WORKING."
2.6k · Nov 2018
BE THY OWN PALACE
Donall Dempsey Nov 2018
BE THY OWN PALACE

Seated beside her
in the pew

her doll listened intently
to the Saviour who

emerges from
the old priest's mouth

an ectoplasm of words
as He manifests before her.

"Is there a doll heaven?"
she wonders.

Her little mistress however is
bored very bored indeed

much more interested  in
a sunbeam genuflecting

before the altar
extinguishing the priest's voice.

Or the ladybird
landing on a lady's foxfur

it more jewel
than the jewel worn.

Picking her nose
as the host is

held aloft

a bird perched upon
the left shoulder of

the crucifix
the Christ a mere cypher

how the artist
fancied HIm.

The crucified man smiling at her
despite how boring the sermon is.

Sunlight becoming colour
travelling through stained glass.

Her doll nods off
falling at her feet

"Shhhhhh!" father scolds
both doll and daughter.

Doll's head broken in four
nothing inside but an emptiness

all her thoughts
evaporated.

The smile still fixed
on her porcelain face.

Incense like death
walking upon the air.

The tiny ******
of a bell.
“Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail.”

John Donne
2.6k · Sep 2018
AND TIME A THIEF
Donall Dempsey Sep 2018
AND TIME A THIEF

She hugged her books
to her *******.

Her ******* hardening into
her Othello and Algebra.

She watched his mouth
move

alive with words
she heard nothing of

only
her name

"...yadayadaMARY...
...yada yada MARY!"

A bead of sweat
trickled between her *******.

She tried to catch
her breath and

what he was saying but
it only gave her hiccups.

She squirmed
under his gaze

a butterfly
held by a pin

pleasure that was
pain.

"And that was how
I met your Dad!"

She tells this story
only when she's very very

tipsy
crying now

for the girl she was
- then:

the Shakespeare & Maths
pressed to her chest

the world
awaiting her.
Donall Dempsey Oct 2019
YOU WEAR MY KISSES IN YOUR HAIR

You wear
my kisses

in your hair

invisible
to everyone

but us

they glisten
like emotional jewelry

bloom like flowers
of desire

you wear
my kisses

in your hair

smiling secretly
to your self

as to how
they got there

& to where
the other kisses

...are!
2.5k · Aug 2018
ME ALRIGHT!
Donall Dempsey Aug 2018
ME ALRIGHT!

She watches as
I write.

The soft wheeze of lead
leaving words in its wake

like seagulls following
the trail of a ship

clamouring after
the refuse of the mind.

Soon the page is
littered with words.

They crawl across the page
in their best 4B.

It pleases her to see
the graphite leave these

tracings of me
upon...beyond...the white.

She looks at the journey of my hand
as if writing were a magic rite.

She asks if she can
draw.

"Sure..." I say
and the words cease.

I just put the tittle
on an small i and j.

The words splashed across the page
like puddles of thought drying in the sun.

I hand her the pencil.

She shakes it and shakes it.
And shakes it.

"What's that for?"
I dare to ask.

"The pencil is too full of words.
I want a pencil full of lines."

"I see..." I say
even though I don't really.

Well, it seems  to work for
nothing comes out but line after line.

She lost in the little planet of
her intense concentration.

She throws in the odd curve
and a wonky circle every now and then.

The lines look confused
not too sure just what

they are doing
on this scrap of paper.

I ask her what
the lines mean.

"The lines are you of course.
See...?"

"I see..." I say
although I don't really.

But indeed in this
drawing I am

very much
as she sees me.

The page never lies.
These are scribbles that were my eyes.

I have as it happens
eyes five

stuck on the side of
what appears to be a head.

And yes only one leg.
One leg with seven toes.

An abstract alien
bird father.

It takes pride of place
sellotaped to the fridge.

"Yep...that's me
alright!"
Donall Dempsey Aug 2018
C'EST PRESQU'AU BOUT DU MONDE..."
( IT WAS ALMOST TO THE END OF THE WORLD )

She believed that
deep deep inside her

the flame of a femme fatale
burned brightly.

Could imagine herself stepping out of
some classic Film Noir.

Cultivated herself
to look like Marie Windsor

opposite the dangerously gorgeous
John Garfield.

But her life it seemed had her
stepping into an Edward Hopper.

The isolation and the paint
still wet.

The lonely lady
glimpsed in an hotel window

from a passing train
autumnal rain.

Still she acted always as if
she was in her own movie l

walking around  her tiny flat
naked

except for red stilettos
red earrings...red lipstick.

Making up her own snappy lines
to some imaginary leading man.

"Are you decent?"
"Yes""

"But you're....you're naked!"
"You only asked if I was decent!"

The mirror laughed
catching the reflection of who

she could have been
given half the chance.

She never
stood a chance.

She threw a cigarette up in the air
caught it between her lips

her one and only
party trick.

Lit or unlit.
Searching for middle C

on a battered piano
her mind off key

abandoning it
the piano's yellow smile.

She watched the sunlight
carve a block of time

out of the dividing wall.
fading the wallpaper roses.

The bed that was always
empty...always unmade.

She danced to Weill's
Youkali Tango.

Put it on again...again.
Scratching an already scratched record.

The needle gathering fluff.
The porcelain milkmaid...dust.

She disliked the way sweat
gathered under her *******.

They were always a little too large.
Hated men staring so hard.

Ahhhh the faded romance
a sunset heart attack.

Couldn't have wrote
herself a better script.

Staggering in her dance
gasping that all too unsubstantial

air as if trying to
catch time

the presentpastfuture
falling out of her hand.

The wooden acorn
of the tattered blind

tapping against
the ***** window pane.

Neon going green.
Then red.

Now blue.
And then green again.
2.5k · Jul 2018
AHHHH PEACE AT LAST!
Donall Dempsey Jul 2018
AHHHH PEACE AT LAST!

The goat is in
the kitchen.

The chicken is in
the living room.

The dog is in
the bedroom.

The cat is
on the mat.

The cow is
mooing in the window.

The humans are out
visiting other humans

in the next village
if one could call it that.

The landscape is asleep
in the sun.

The animals have the house
to themselves.
***

First ever Greek holiday....always remember to lock the door. The goat was the ringleader who butted into our private space and of course the others followed...guess they must have read ANIMAL FARM.
2.5k · Oct 2018
THE TRUE STORY
Donall Dempsey Oct 2018
THE TRUE STORY

The wolf sat on the ground.

Little Red Riding Hood
sat at his feet.

"Well, well, well, so
here we are again!"

said Mr. Woolf in a faux
English accent

he had picked up from watching
Peter O'Toole be Lawrence of Arabia.

"Some apple juice my dear
have some apple crumble do!"

enquired Mr. Woolf of his
fairy story cohort.

"I baked it myself you know
molasses instead of sugar

gives it that dark flavour
oh and a little touch of ginger!"

Little Red Riding Hood
wolfed down the apple crumble.

Sipped...slurped
noisily through a bendy straw

annoying the silence that
gathered itself around her.

There was a piece of apple
crumble on her nose.

For a little girl she
had a big appetite.

The wolf ate nothing.

"We can't go on like this
any minute now a child

somewhere in another
somewhere

will start our story
by opening a book.

I will be called upon
to eat you and Granny up.

I don't even like
grannies for gawd's sake!"

Mr. Woolf had tears that
refused to fall.

It's got...it's...got
to somehow stop!"

Little Red Riding Hood burped.
"Pardon!"

So, when the child I used to be
opened the story once

upon a time it was
simply not there.

There was nothing there.
Nothing but a great big ****** blank.

Somewhere in another somewhere
Little Red Riding Hood

swung on a swing
Mr. Woolf pushing her

higher and
higher into

a summer blue
sky.
2.4k · Oct 2018
WHAT A WONDERFUL LITTLE BOY
Donall Dempsey Oct 2018
WHAT A WONDERFUL LITTLE BOY

The view
gazes at him.

The landscape gathers
itself about him

as if he were a piece of pigment
in a painting a blob or blurr

of blue or green or
something in between.

"What a wonderful little boy!"
a passing cloud, pauses...muses

and says once more in case the hill
hadn't heard.

"What a wonderful little boy indeed!"
a tree agrees...winking...its leaves.

A river runs through him
alive in his senses.

The grass runs all over
the field tickling his naked toes.

Sunlight throws
itself at his feet

bows before him in all
its glory.

A breeze throws his hat high
up in the sky and

returns it to his hand
as if by command.

The clouds grazing now
upon a hill top

fascinated by his presence
how he has come to be.

"He makes us feel
so very much alive!"

One cloud nods
to another.

"Oh, there's a poet in him
to be sure to be sure!"

the river remarks
its voice clamouring over stones.

Time that sheep dog barks
but the clouds only luahg

"See how he lends us
his voice

in order that we may think
and speak.

Look I'm talking
in human words."

"Ballea...Ballea...Ballea!"
the farm shouts its name.

Again and again and again
the river exclaims

"Owenabui...Owenabui...Owenabui!"
sunlight dancing in its voice.

A bird stands stock still
upon the air

neither coming or going
just standing on nothing

as if it were a punctuation mark
typed upon the sky.

Time returns now
in policeman mood.

"Move along now...nothing to see here
move along now!"

And the landscape loses a voice
the sky its ability to see
the cloud has no words
the bird become a dot

only the sunset
whispers to an horizon

"What a wonderful
wonderful little boy!"
Donall Dempsey Feb 2018
LE PRINCE D’AQUITAINE Á LA TOUR ABOLIE
(THE PRINCE OF AQUITAINE IN HIS RUINED TOWER)

Beneath the colonnades
of the Palais Royal

the poet
takes for a walk

a live lobster
on a leash

of blue
ribbon.

How droll.

Mais, regardez le
...souvent
dans l’être obscur
habite un Dieu
caché

(But look at him
...often
the most obscure of beings
houses a hidden God) .

Allez chercher
ce fou...cet insensé sublime
un seul pouvait
au monde expliquer
ce mystère d’amour

celui qui donna
l’âme
aux mots

entre une monde
qui meurt
et l’autre
renaissat

(“ Go fetch
the madman
insane & sublime

the only one
who could explain
to the world
the mystery of love.

He who gave a soul
to words

between a world
that is dying

& a world
In rebirth”)

And yet
with an apron string

(which he imagines
is a garter
of a queen)

he hangs himself
from a lamppost

pockets bulging
with manuscripts

one
wintry
morning.

Consummatum....est!

...de tons conseils
l’univers
est
absent?

(It is...finished.
...the universe is
absent
from your plans?)

Ah, mais...
el desdichado
le spectre de fumée
vaincu se releva
plus grand
...qui tendit sa main
pure
des cieux

j’ai rêvé...rêvé! »

(Ah, disinherited one

the ghost of smoke
rose up again
greater in defeat

who reaches out
his pure hand
to the skies

I have dreamed...dreamed...)

“Here he is, here he is
back from Hell...
...the ghost whose heart
still bleeds with love.”

Pleurez...pleurer!
Le ciel est vide!
(Cry...cry!
Heaven is empty!)

And so
leading us
astray

vanishing from
his work

forever lucid

he takes
pleasure

in disappearing
from himself

in this
his waking
dream

lost between

the Gates of Tears

the gates of sleep

of horn
& ivory

and their
infinite horizons

the sanity
of madness.

Ah, la grande
Peut-être

...de omni
re scibili et
quibusdam
aliis.

(Ah, the great
Perchance

of all things
that can be

known

& even of
some others”)

Ah, hélas
le doux Gérard

M. Personne
(Mr. No one
& every one)

always writing
in your broken tour

JE SUIS L’AUTRE
JE SUIS L’AUTRE
(I AM THE OTHER)

You stare
out at me
from that daguerreotype

lost & defiant
in the camera’s gaze

Tu...le ténébruex...
...l’inconsolé...
ton Coeur desolé

constellé
dans ma tête

...est-ce toi
que
je sens
en moi-même?

(You...the man of gloom
the unconsoled

your desolate heart

constellated
in my head

Is this you
I feel within
my self?) .

Knowing the night
will be so black
& white

I wait up for you

Eh, quoi…dans
cette chamber bleue
je bois
Lachryma Christi.

(And so
in this blue room
I drink
The tears of Christ) .

I wait up for you

...’til dawn.
Donall Dempsey Jul 2018
THE DISH RAN AWAY WITH THE SPOON

You’re just a little bitty dog
with a great big old bone.

Can’t take it with you
...can’t leave it alone.

The moon is ticking backwards
the clock don’t know why

stars are just tears
that the night has to cry.

The neon dances in the puddles in the streets...
...heartbreak echoes in the empty passing feet.

You think your life’s a musical
but it’s more Film Noir.

You look at a map that says
YOU ARE HERE
but you don’t know where you are.

The sun came in the window -
- your love walked out the door.

I always adored Country & Western
but had never lived it before.

You’re just a little bitty dog
with a great big old bone.

Can’t take it with you...

...leave it alone!
2.3k · Mar 2019
GRANDFATHER CLOCK
Donall Dempsey Mar 2019
GRANDFATHER CLOCK

"When granda died
he turned into a clock!"

I was 7 or so, so this seemed
an acceptable fact.

"Oh we still kept him in the corner
wound him up every night."

I glanced at the nothing in the corner.
There was only a slab of sunlight dozing.

"Oh we had to pawn him
a long time ago!"

I gasped: "Noooo!"

"Oh he had to go
he had only one hand

and his pendulum
was broken."

Sam the dog barks
asks if I am coming out to play.

I of course am
coming out to play.

Auntie Nellie scolds
Uncle Michael.

"For God's sake Mikey
will ya ****** well stop!"

Mikey sticks his tongue in cheek
a characteristic tic.

"Can't ya see the poor child is
ejeet enough to believe ya!"

Whenever later I chance to meet
a clock that could be my granda

I touch its face tenderly
stroke the mottled glass

"Ahhh Granda!" I smile
giving him a great big hug.

"TickTock!" says granda
"**** ****!"
My da's da died before I was born so I never knew him...only shards of stories...fragments of who he might have been. I used to walk around the farm imagining him doing the exact same back in the day of say 1922.  When I was as small as stupid and as impressionable as hell my uncle would answer a normal question about my granda with a tall tale such as this. He'd tell me the most surreal things with a straight poker face and I love him so much I believed anything and everything he'd make up. If my father gave me his love of poetry...it was Uncle Mikey who made me one with all his glorious making up! Nellie used to scold him about this but it didn't stop him as the words coming out of his mouth grew into an enchanted entangled forest. He was the treasure trove of my childhood and I was rich beyond my wildest dreams.
Donall Dempsey May 2016
MAE HIRAETH ARNA AMDANOT
( THERE'S LONELINESS ON ME FOR YOU )

Her shadow is
laughing.

Her shadow is
taller than a tree.

She is a key
for which there is

no door

a Polaroid photograph
dying in the sun

( fading into the nothing
from which it comes ).

My mind slashes through time
grasps this memory

of her
clutches it to itself

until once again Death
orders it to

. . .let go.

It...does so.

Her shadow
laughing.

Her shadow
taller than a tree.


Hiraeth, pronounced "here eyeth" is a Welsh word that has no direct English translation. It is defined it as homesickness tinged with grief or sadness over the lost or departed. It is a mix of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness, or an earnest desire...a homesickness for a home you cannot return to, or that never was.

Hiraeth is best buddies with the Portuguese concept of saudade (a key theme in Fado music), Brazilian Portuguese banzo (more related to homesickness), Turkish gurbet, Galician morriña, Romanian dor.
Donall Dempsey May 2017
THE CONSTELLATION OF THE GIRL FROM WALLA-WALLA

I lick her lifeline
"Oh I can see you are
going to have a wet wet life!"

she watches the tip of
my tongue crawl along her heart line
"You will have many many kisses!"

she sips her fine wine
laughs...munches
sweet onions

all I say
comes true right away
guess I got it right

cute girl from
Walla-Wall sleeping
just up against the Pacific Ocean

"Shhhh..!" says the Pacific Ocean
as it watches over
her sleep

I place DayGlo stars
on all her extremities
she becomes her own constellation

the constellation of
the Girl From Walla-Walla
being looked after by a specific Ocean

"Walla-Walla!"
the waves call to her
but she's lost inside a dream

"Are you really a real Walla-Wallan?"
I ask of her
"Yep!" she grins "I'm the real thing!"

"The only Walla-Wallan
I knew before I knew you
was a girl in a book!"

I turn the snow-dome
up-side d-own
watch it snow forever

I remember her
letter telling me
of a snowstorm she once knew

"I took a little of the snowstorm
put it in the fridge so
it could melt in July."

"The snow storm had never met
a July before
so this was its big chance!"

"When the left-over snowstorm
finally got to meet its July
it cried itself into oblivion!"

"...here. . ." her letter
pauses for ever
outside snow falls now
Donall Dempsey Jul 2016
'. . . SWALLOW SWALLOW LITTLE SWALLOW.  .."

Winter melts into Spring
the swallows ignore the War
return...as they always do
Donall Dempsey May 2017
MAE HIRAETH ARNA AMDANOT
( THERE'S LONELINESS ON ME FOR YOU )

Her shadow is
laughing.

Her shadow is
taller than a tree.

She is a key
for which there is

no door

a Polaroid photograph
dying in the sun

( fading into the nothing
from which it comes ).

My mind slashes through time
grasps this memory

of her
clutches it to itself

until once again Death
orders it to

. . .let go.

It...does so.

Her shadow
laughing.

Her shadow
taller than a tree.

*

Hiraeth, pronounced "here eyeth" is a Welsh word that has no direct English translation. It is defined it as homesickness tinged with grief or sadness over the lost or departed. It is a mix of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness, or an earnest desire...a homesickness for a home you cannot return to, or that never was.

Hiraeth is best buddies with the Portuguese concept of saudade (a key theme in Fado music), Brazilian Portuguese banzo (more related to homesickness), Turkish gurbet, Galician morriña, Romanian dor.
2.3k · Nov 2018
"DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION?"
Donall Dempsey Nov 2018
"DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION?"

her heart was a red
fire alarm

going off
with nobody

paying it
any mind

her heart was
an evening hillside

as the sun went down

the light stealing
into the ground

her heart was a favourite
pair of cufflinks

with one link
missing

or an earring found far
too late many many

years later

her heart was a lute
that was mute

unplayed for
many many moons

her heart
was a house

burningburningburning down
razed to the ground

the sneer of her
pyromanic lover

lost in the shadows

her heart was
the junk mail

that came in one door &
out the other

instant *******

she felt as if someone
had pressed DELETE

her heart was
a crystal ball

that could foretell
nothing....nothing at all

her heart was
a knocked over cheap cocktail

that left a nasty stain
on the carpet...on the wall

her heart was
a tiny torn pink knapsack

that held all
she had known

her heart was
the forgotten iron

branding itself into
her nice new blouse

her heart was
a poppy seen

from a passing train
there&gone again

her heart
full of the perfume

of memories that refused
to ever

...go away.
2.1k · Nov 2018
THE LANGUAGE OF WATER
Donall Dempsey Nov 2018
THE LANGUAGE OF WATER

You wait by the lake
alone

except for your self
&
your reflected self

as if the landscape
dreamt you up.

Your thoughts a flock of birds
scattered across the failing light.

Clouds laugh
run along the ground
on tiny unseen feet.

Trees stand on their heads
wriggling their toes in the air

& you
become as two

both real & unreal

as if a living
dream.

You hum
Pachabel's Canon

as sun & horizon
listen.

Not bad for a human
they both agree.

It's as if
I need a key

to enter this magical
dimension

as if I have to
invent one

...a magical one.
I take a little stone

whisper to it the secrets
of flight

and teach it how to say: "Splash! "
in the language of water.

The little stone
transformed  with its new knowledge

does as it is told

shatters
this mirror world

opens
the dream

and I enter
bewitched

as any fairytale
Prince

my voice
calling your sweet name

with longing

you turn
& we embrace

kiss
& look upon ourselves

as the dream
remakes itself

stitching itself
together with silence.

An old artist
(unknown to us then)  

places us
the lovers

at the center
of his composition

adds this
final brushstroke

and pleased
with his efforts

folds up
his chair

packs up
his paints & easel

smiles at our
kisses

wishes
us a goodnight

and is gone
eaten by the twilight.

Our laughter
frail & fragile

lingering on the night air

playing peek-a-boo
with the moonlight.
Donall Dempsey Dec 2015
A SEAHORSE QUESTIONING

( for Onelia )

The cellist's hand
waits outside time

pauses
beside his instrument

like an exotic fish

steadying itself
in the flow of the music

before dashing out
from behind a glowing coral

eagerly snapping up
the little notes that swim by

at his head
his cello bobs

like a seahorse
questioning

all that is
happening

as he tries to enter
the same stream

(despite Heraclitus's advice)  

.. twice.
*******

For 3 wonderful nights over Christmas in the Chiesa San Vidal in Venice we watched with delight the cello playing of Nazzareno Balduin of the Interpreti Veneziani. His body transformed itself into the music as he played with such gusto and grace.  This poem was written in praise of him in the still moment before he entered a piece...his hand floating in the air...stroking the music and taming it. Even when not playing he was playing! And doing so...so beautifully! So...beautifully!
2.1k · Sep 2018
BAREFOOT
Donall Dempsey Sep 2018
BAREFOOT

I follow the road
of my father’s voice

journey with him
along white roads...over green fields

barefoot
to school & back

(shoes if at all...worn only to church)

picking up the cuts & scabs
stubbed toes

his going to school
would entail

in the early years of the 1920’s
only so much history to me

real
to him

his toes
knowing the wind
in the grass

for what it is

his toes
clasping a rock
fording a stream

Irish & poems
bubbling through his head

babbling along
the tongue

words thrown to
those lost summer skies

startling a blackbird
spouting his poetry

with poetry
of his own

(3 miles to school...3 miles back)

his mind a skimmed stone
dancing along a river

over unforgiving
stones

thorns attacking his feet
with undisguised relish

the vehemence of glass
glinting greedily

for the next footstep

the menace
of the twisted rusty nail

& its treachery
betraying the next footfall

as he walks over
the unremitting years

into my eyes
wide with wonder

listening to him
tell of himself

as a little boy

to his little boy
the me of then

my eyes now

following the road
of my father’s voice

as it wanders
barefoot
Donall Dempsey Dec 2015
WATER'S LAUGHTER

(Being An Early Christmas Poem For Jan)

She laughs
like water

pours herself
into my embrace

takes whatever shape
(cuddle hug Indian ******
statue Kamasutra)    

within these
arms

I kiss her
with a love

that cannot
harm her

me the container
of who I am

holding her love
like water's laughter.
2.1k · Jul 2018
THE SMELL OF PURPLE
Donall Dempsey Jul 2018
THE SMELL OF PURPLE

She says she can
smell yellow.

She says she can
smell blue.

Despite not being able to
spell either colour.

'Yellow smells
the same as blue.'

'...like a wet kitty
drying by the fire.'

'Red smells like
Mummy when she kisses.'

'Her kisses smell different
when she kisses you...
...then she smells like flames
with little orange tips! '

'Purple
is my favourite smell...

...it smells just like
a magic spell! '

I kiss her goodnight
like lilac(only lighter)    

with little flecks of purple
scattered here & there.
2.0k · Apr 2016
EAT YOUR ALLIGATOR TILLY!
Donall Dempsey Apr 2016
EAT YOUR ALLIGATOR TILLY!

Darling daughter
refusing to eat

so, I: sea
shanty her.

"Oh what do ya think we'll have for supper?"

"Eat Tilly eat!"

"Oh maybe we'll have alligator!"

"Eat my Tilly girl...eat!"

"Oh but I couldn't eat a whole alligator!"

"Eat Tilly eat!"

"Well...eat only half and keep half for later!"

"Eat my Tilly girl...eat!"

"Eat alligator before he eats you!"

My little sailor suited girl
opens her mouth to laugh

and in pops
Mr. Spoon.

Hmmmmmm.....yum yum.

Soon alligator becomes
her word

for any eatables
whether it be ice cream or scone.

Now she sings
heartily to self

my three year old salty sea dog

'EAT YOUR ALLIGATOR TILLY!"
Tilly's stammer vanished when she sang so I sang to her and got her to sing back to me...the call and response of the sea shanty was an excellent device to utilise. So I would sing to her: "PASS THE BUTTER TILLY...DON'T PET THE BUTTER SILLY!"

The stammer would also be no more if she mimicked voices so we often stepped into the borrowing of W.C. Fields' voice. She would also "N" words so that "porridge! would become "Norrige!"  She would also leave the first letter of the word off so that "dog" would become an "OG!" However she would also make up her own words like a little Adam so that a 'cat" was always an. . .  
"ANA BOOBOO!"  She would also slur a sentence into its component sounds and tones and inflections ending in one clear word at the end as in "Wouldyoulikeanicecupof...TEA!"  Such are the learning curves when one engages with the delights of the language.

Sung to the tune of BLOW BOYS BLOW!

"O Congo she's a mighty river,
( blow boys blow )
Where fever makes the white man shiver.
Blow my bully boys blow!"
Donall Dempsey Sep 2018
DEATH OF A JAZZ MAN
( for Jazzman John Clarke )

It was as I
expected

there was these
angel chicks

playing on harps
on Cloud 9

other angel dudes
playing trumpets and horns

but man
there was the Big Guy himself

playing a mean baritone
saxophone

like he was Gerry Mulligan
or something

the lyrics were
you know

hard to catch
"...you are the music while the music lasts..."

or something
Eliotish like that

I strode up
to the Big Guy

checking his *******
with a grin

"Man, that's real
solid gone!"

"I shall be made
thy music..."

The Big Guy
smiled...blew

one long long
final note.
2.0k · Aug 2018
KICKING THE BUCKET
Donall Dempsey Aug 2018
KICKING THE BUCKET

The moon has fallen
asleep in a bucket

can't get back out despite
trying to slide over the rim.

It trembles as a train
thunders past midnight.

A child tries to catch it
its tiny hand plunging

through another dimension
through to its nothingness.

The moon takes its chance and
escapes to the sky with a splash.

It's all gone now
( the barn of course )

but the house...the child...that moon
are no longer to be found.

Strange to think
a house can die.

A tree enters through
the kitchen window

lays
its head upon a table.

The bedroom
is without its roof.

A door still stands
without its walls.

It bangs in the breeze
a surreal morse code.

The living room is home
to a family of nettles.

A sofa moulders
a new line in zombie furniture.

A hare stands upon a chair
barely able to hold itself together.

One of the chair's legs
genuflects to a sunset.

The hare hops upon
the rotting table top

enters the tree's head
and leaves upon its branches.

Somehow the bucket
survives.

Still standing outside
the outhouse.

It is full of storm
right to the brim.

It holds within itself
the moon of now.

Trains no longer
thunder by.

I, that child
now - this man

let the moon
splash through my man

before throwing it
into the night's sky.

Always wanted to do that
before I kicked the bucket.
Donall Dempsey Aug 2018
TO A GREEN THOUGHT IN A GREEN SHADE

The rose appeared
as if it had been created

that very morning
that very instant.

It's newness almost
shining.

Grass seemed to have fallen
out of a sky

like little green rain
piercing the earth

blade after blade after blade
delighting in its very greenness.

Dandelions and daises
dancing together

sharing the same lane
with the early worms.

All meeting
as equals.

Not a Garden
in Eden- but Guildford

humble in its own
creation.

This moment plucked
from many many moments

as the one to be
remembered.

Time and Infinity
getting it together

eclipsing the fact
that this is

an ordinary 25th of
whatever

turning into
a forever.
2.0k · Aug 2018
TOAST
Donall Dempsey Aug 2018
TOAST

"FIRE. . .FIRE!"

The house was busily
burning down.

"Quick. . .quick!"
Mum screeched .

"Go fetch the marshmallows!"

I dashed back
into the inferno

& emerged
long minutes later

my eyebrows ablaze
my nostril hairs slightly singed

The fire had greedily gobbled up
all the marshmallows

for itself.

"****!" said Mum.
"****...****...****!"

slapping me
about the head

with...each...uttered
syllable.

"I managed to save a loaf
of Mother's Pride!"
I cried.

"It will have to go!"
sighed Mum.

And so, we had
some toast
1.9k · Sep 2018
NEW YORK STATE OF MIND
Donall Dempsey Sep 2018
NEW YORK STATE OF MIND

Walt Whitman
walks by me
somewhere in 1891

I nod to him...he nods to me
lost in himself
Clinton is being inaugurated

Brooklyn Bridge
saunters by
dressed in the summer of '67

the subway
wears its best graffiti
the music of trains and Coltrane

the Flatiron Building is jaywalking
the Empire State
chats him up

a child's hopscotch
almost washed away
a moment's masterpiece

Robert Moses
looks across Long Island
longs to build the city only he sees

he gazes into my future
I look into his past
I pass Robert Mapplethorpe

a man in a white suit
nailed to the darkness
by so many stars

an old saxophone player
busks Rogers and Hart in Central Park
"...I didn't know what time it was..."

two obese Chinese
take up most of the sidewalk
both speaking fluent - Irish

Leaves of Grass
lies scattered across the road
read now by the wind

a car caught in traffic
blares out Joel's
"New York State of Mind"

I laugh at such
a happenstance
a walk-on-part in my own movie

escaping the borders
of the body
I walk through times

I am all the times
of the world
they intersect in self

Walt and I
sitting on a park bench
waiting to go somewhere else

an 1990's rain
falls on an 1870's NY
they are beginning Brooklyn Bridge

I meet my self
coming and going
an older and a younger me

time held prisoner on the wrist
I turn and walk away
into this the newest of centuries
1.9k · Nov 2018
IN FLOOD
Donall Dempsey Nov 2018
IN FLOOD

You run down
the stairs

quickly quickly

your floating skirt
flowing step by step

after you

as if it were
your own private river

splashing at your heels

my heart flooded
with desire.
1.9k · Apr 2019
EAT YOUR ALLIGATOR TILLY!
Donall Dempsey Apr 2019
EAT YOUR ALLIGATOR TILLY!

Darling daughter
refusing to eat

so, I: sea
shanty her.

"Oh what do ya think we'll have for supper?"

"Eat Tilly eat!"

"Oh maybe we'll have alligator!"

"Eat my Tilly girl...eat!"

"Oh but I couldn't eat a whole alligator!"

"Eat Tilly eat!"

"Well...eat only half and keep half for later!"

"Eat my Tilly girl...eat!"

"Eat-alligator-before-alligator-eats-you!"

My little sailor suited girl
opens her mouth to laugh

and in pops
Mr. Spoon.

Hmmmmmm.....yum yum.

Soon alligator becomes
her word

for any eatables
whether it be ice cream or scone.

Now she sings
heartily to self

my three year old salty sea dog

'EAT YOUR ALLIGATOR TILLY!"
1.9k · Jan 2020
"MARBLES...PYJAMAS AND JAM!"
Donall Dempsey Jan 2020
"MARBLES...PYJAMAS AND JAM!"

wake up at 3 of the clock
eat jam in my pyjamas from the jar
play marbles with an imaginary friend

he wins...again
this the grown up world
of a four year old

acting like a grown up
time mine to play with

*

And then there was the childhood declension of sandwiches.

1. "Raw bread" Just as it was bread on bread....squashed flat and not...even air in between. I love bread me.

2. Bread and butter...your basic staple sandwich.

3. Bread and butter and sugar...now yer talking.

4. Bread and butter and banana...sprinkled with sugar.

5. And yer king of all sandwiches . the "Blood Sandwich!"
Bread, butter and Tomato Ketchup.

These were the sandwiches of my life. The kind even a child could make in the middle of the night when he wasn't supposed to be up and eating sandwiches.

"Marbles...pyjamas and jam!" I chanted to myself to announce the new me I have become.

I remember getting out of bed in my striped pyjamas and  going downstairs and eating the jam out with a spoon( forget the bread) and then having a game of marbles by myself...first taking one shot and then moving over and becoming my invisible opponent and taking his shot. My imaginary friend winning all the time.

This was at 3 in the morning and felt very scary and daring and so grown up because I was deciding what time and what to do for myself even if it was 3 O' ****** clock in the morning.

I had envied grown ups and their not having to go to bed by nine and be able to stay up and be themselves. I could hear them laughing downstairs...having I supposed....the time of their lives.

So now I sang myself into my four year old adulthood with "Marbles...pyjamas...and jam!"

Because that's the kind of kid I am.

Now the wind wails through the ruins of the house howling that "Home is...an absence." My new mantra.  And outside the house (that isn't there no more)( invisible to everyone but me) I would have ghost girls jump to a skipping rope chanting my "Marbles...pyjamas and jam!" as a rhyme. Skipping in time.

"And this one's OUT!" they all shout and scatter away like little marbles being hit by a sacred scared twa.
1.9k · Oct 2015
STAR & STARFISH
Donall Dempsey Oct 2015
She climbs
a ladder in her sleep

as if she reached
the top of the night

clutching at a star

or see she swims
in an invisible sea

grasping at a starfish
I can not see.

I stroke her...touch her hair.
Her breath warms my hand

all my life
lies here.

Love smiles
asks me

'Why the tears? '

'This child...my child...'

She turns & smiles
still lost in dreams

star in one hand...starfish in the other.
Donall Dempsey Jun 2019
!LEPRECHAUNS' *****!
(for the glorious M.F.F.)

Gorging on goosegogs
stolen from Granny's garden

all the sweeter for the stealing
despite their inherent tartness.

We never able to make up
our minds whether we

liked them or not
but loving 'em all the same.

Mary and her mind games
trying to prevent me eating

the last one
informs me that "...goosegogs is

the hairy green testicles
of leprechauns."

But despite being armed
with this knowledge I

pop it in my mouth
proclaiming it " De...

lic..ious!" all the same.
Mary looks at me with disgust.

Goosegogs the eternal
taste of summer when

summer hath no ending
and everything was only

a beginning
and there was such a thing as

leprechauns' *****.
1.8k · Jul 2015
HAMLET HACKED
Donall Dempsey Jul 2015
Hamlet texts:
"2B r..."

Ophelia texts back"
"...NOT 2B babe!"

Then a text following on
her just sent text

"G'd nite sweety prince!"
she minces irony with sarcasm

"Yo, *****...get thee to a nunnery!"
Hamlet always direct and cruder.

'SOMETHING'S ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF
THEIR RELATIONSHIP!"

THE NEWS OF THE WORLD
proclaims the next day.
The News of the Screws or The Screws of the World as it was called even back in Shakey's day probably had their own Clive Good-man who probably had a terrible hack hacking...cough. Shakespeare wrote the now alas lost play KING MURDOCK or as it was subtitled ALL'S UNWELL THAT ENDS ILL.

Frederick Greenwood, editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, met in his club one day Lord Riddell and in the course of conversation Riddell said to him, "You know, I own a paper."

"Oh, do you?" said Greenwood, "what is it?"

"It's called the News of the World—I'll send you a copy", replied Riddell, and in due course did so. Next time they met Riddell said, "Well Greenwood, what do you think of my paper?"

"I looked at it", replied Greenwood, "and then I put it in the waste-paper basket. And then I thought, 'If I leave it there the cook may read it'—so I burned it!"

The last edition was published on the 10 of July back in 2011..I am celebrating it's GONE-NESS!
1.8k · Aug 2017
TRAPPED IN A TEASPOON
Donall Dempsey Aug 2017
TRAPPED IN A TEASPOON

the -ing -ing of the bell
trapping him in
the continuous present

an eternal gerund
as if the moment could not be
escaped from

even the sky clouding
the trees( so to speak )
tree-ing

and he
he he he-ing
a prisoner of grammar

his face looking aback at him
from a highly ornate teaspoon
and he himself that distrotion

reality refusing
to boldly go
splitting the infinitive

the -ing -ing of the bell
a present that refused
to pass and become

the what had been
the now fearful of putting a toe
into a future it did not know

the very future that
awaited him
but could never happen

the moment
congealing
about him

trapped forever
in this forever
the spilled wine

staining both
his shirt
and time

the -ing -ing of the bell
the -ing -ing of the bell
the -ing -ing -ing of the bell
Breakdown during a funeral...
1.8k · May 2019
SAD VALENTINES FOR BREAKFAST
Donall Dempsey May 2019
SAD VALENTINES FOR BREAKFAST

Oh my how red **** struts(thinks he's a sultan)    
striding in and out among his harem-scarum hens

talking to themselves
like some lost senile sentimental souls.

Foolish fowl!

They lay eggs for gentlemen
and kids on long hot summer holidays

they hide their eggs like broken hearts
like old love letter secrets

safe in unseen places.

But see Auntie Nellie *****-nilly as a fox
stalk the chickens and expose them

cruel as the NEWS OF THE WORLD.

See her raid the haystacks
(backseat of the old car)    
rain rusting machinery

her apron pregnant and precious with
the warm and brown gift of eggs.

Red **** crows loud against the morning marigolds
while children's voices babble sleepily into wide awakefulness

love letter secrets staining their lips
sad valentines for breakfast.
1.8k · May 2016
A LATE 1962-ISH PUDDLE
Donall Dempsey May 2016
A LATE 1962-ISH PUDDLE

It was a late 1962-ish
puddle.

A Curragh puddle
to be exact

but you
...wouldn't know that.

A moon had fallen
asleep in it

with scattered silver stars
nailing it to the ground.

I was 6-ish
by then &

had encountered more
puddles than you

could ever splash
about in.

But, this was
the first puddle

I ever
remember.

An Ur-puddle.

To the rest of the world
it was as if

it had never been &
existed only for me.

A robin stood
at my side.

Us both...staring at the puddle.

Suddenly the robin
made up its mind &

stepped defiantly
into this miniature ocean.

The robin stood on the moon
which shattered &

reformed itself about
its tiny feet.

It was the first robin
I'd seen

walking on the moon.

The puddle lived
inside my head

for many many
years until

these words came along
and took it away.

It was like the hand
of a man

long long before
history was invented

pressed against
the flickering cave wall

leaving a sooty hand print
in celebration of himself.

"This mark means
me!"

My late 1962-ish
Curragh puddle

and that robin walking
on a watery moon

is my handprint
on the cave wall

of my mind
in the long long ago.

I laugh at
the me-ness of me!
1.8k · Apr 2019
GRANDAD TENDS HIS DAHLIAS
Donall Dempsey Apr 2019
GRANDAD TENDS HIS DAHLIAS

the fog
walks among the tombs
"I encounter my first ***

he was a man
he looked just like me
as if I were...killing myself!"

stretching back
through space & time
the instant of that moment

the German falls
beside a tomb
like a badly written play

Grandad bayonettes
the German...looks surprised
to be dying

Grandad plunges the bayonette in
twists it about
the German almost grins

then the dance
of the living & the dying
in strict time

the German goes down
on one knee
as if proposing to Death

Granddad stabs the German
through the lifeline
of his left hand

the dying German's
left outstretched hand
like a man about to sing a song

"As he fell
his hand touched my hand
'This...' I thought '...is hell!'"

all his life
the touch...that touch
impossible to shake off

Grandad tends his dahlias
the dying German
still clouding his eyes
1.8k · Dec 2015
MONKEY SEE! MONKEY DO!
Donall Dempsey Dec 2015
MONKEY SEE! MONKEY DO!
puppet monkey mimics me
sporting my new purple hat
which looks blue in the photo

"Ok...ok!" I snap
"Give...it...back!"
I enunciate each syllable

but the monkey only laughs
leaping to the highest branches
of my over fertile

imagination.

"Don't blame me!" it slyly smirks
"I ain't the one making this
load of balloney up now
Donall Dempsey Oct 2017
TEACHING TIMOTHY TO READ
( for Maureen )

She is teaching Timothy
to read

even though she
can't read herself.

Tongue firmly in cheek
she traces the words

with a tiny fingertip
that knows the story

off by heart she
could read it in the dark.

She is "pretending reading."
She has my every nuance and pause

by rote
making great efforts

to teach Timothy
the puppy

but Timothy the puppy
is more interested in

the un-thrown stick.

Timothy the puppy thinks this reading lark is
strictly for the humans.

"Once..." she begins
in a Fairy Tale-ish voice.

Timothy the puppy
barks in acknowledgement.

"Throwthestickthrowthestick!"
Timothy the Puppy's mind thinks.

"...upon a time
a long long time

...ago!"

Timothy the puppy looks
adoringly at his little mistress

with such an immensity of love and
licks her finger as it

travels over the words
the story's journey.

"Oh you..!" she scolds
"...are not even paying attention!"

"It's no good...I give up!"
she frowns at the unhappy creature

throwing the book away
in a prissy hissy fit.

Timothy the puppy
full of the joys of

a dog's life
( it's the only life he knows )

chases the fluttering pages
that fly like an exotic bird

brings Hans Christian Anderson back
his mouth full of words.
Donall Dempsey Jan 2018
THE DANGERS OF READING FLAUBERT....AL FRESCO!
( for Ray )

"Souvent la chaleur d’un beau jour..."

he reads, stops:
kisses her.

" ...Fait rêver fillette à l’amour."

she completes the words
kisses...kisses him.

Dining al fresco
feeling somewhat frisky

they throw caution
to the wind

soon all too soon
Flaubert forgotten

Madame Bovary
discarded on the grass

soon all too soon
even the food forgotten

clothing of both
male and female attire

discarded on the grass
now nothing but gasps

they each
the other's feast

the wind idly turning
Bovary's pages

skipping to the end then
beginning again

until one last ***** gusty
breeze interrupts their play

chasing their clothes
that run away

his boxers hang now
upon the bough

her pink camiknickers..pale pink bra
making a run for it

laughingly they chase
their clothes

this Adam and his Eve

bra floating ****-up
in a pond

the camiknickers never
alas to be found.

And here now on their
50th

they share the same smile
when asked how it was

they came together

remembering their love making
in windy weather

shyly slyly blame
Flaubert

" Il souffla bien fort ce jour-là,
Et le jupon court s’envola."
***

From the Italian, literally translated as 'in the fresh'. In English, used to mean either 'in the open air' or, where specifically related to mural painting, 'on fresh plaster'.

Almost always, it is used in relation to dining alfresco, that is, eating outdoors.

Both meanings have been in use in English since at least the late 18th century; for example, in Mrs. Eliza Haywood's History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy, 1753:

"It was good for her ladyship's health to be thus alfresco."

The lines quoted are from the end of Madame Bovary who expires as the Blind Man sings them in a raucous voice. They are from a  Restive de la Bretonne poem from his"The Year of the National Ladies" way back in 1791. He who was so much into women's shoes  that his very name became as one with this particular peculiar fetish..Retifism

"Souvent la chaleur d’un beau jour
Fait rêver fillette à l’amour.

Il souffla bien fort ce jour-là,
Et le jupon court s’envola."

"Maids in the warmth of a summer day,
Dream of love, and of love always. . ."

"The wind is strong this summer day
Her petticoat has flown away."
1.7k · Mar 2019
OLIVE & THE LION
Donall Dempsey Mar 2019
OLIVE & THE LION

he so lion-like
I feel like a nervous zebra
in my black&white stripped dress

he looks upon me
as prey...I pray
move slowly away

he stalks me across
the Serengeti living room
I spill champagne down my cleavage

I chat to
( and hide behind )
a baboon-like man

Lion licks his lips
he lets an oyster slip
down his throat in one...gulp!

he spears an olive
on a cocktail stick
I Olive can only stare

Lion sits on the arm
of my armchair
"Well...well...look who we have here?"

I startle
try to bolt away
his eyes pin me to the chair

too terrified to say
"No!" I say "YES. . !"
What am I saying!

we have ***
in the upstairs loo
outside some curses

a pool of *****
outside the loo door
I step daintily over it

his eyes track
other prey
growls "See ya around babe!"

I cry into my dry
martini...shaken...stirred
***** running down my left leg
1.7k · Mar 2019
DREAMING OF BEING REAL
Donall Dempsey Mar 2019
DREAMING OF BEING REAL

I waited with
the bubbles

to cross the street.

One big bubble
winked at me.

It had a rainbow
just off-key of its center

like a Cyclops
eye.

'Bye! ' it blinked
and went out of existence.

I felt sad.
I had really liked that bubble.

My daughter
waiting for red to go green

continued blowing
families of bubbles.

some of the bubbles
crossed the road

before the lights
changed

and got hit by a 69
bus.

Others busted
on a lady's hat

but the lady didn't
notice it.

One hitched a ride
on an exclamation mark

pretending to be
a dog's tail.

Two little baby bubbles
travelled over on my shoulder.

Some newly blown bubbles
dashed across the road

leading delightedly
the way.

Others disappeared up
into a blue so blue

(you wouldn't believe it)  

as if summer
was trying to be

a perfect picture postcard
of itself.

'Hold my hand now, love! '
the father in my voice

tinged the words
with love and care.

'Ok! '
my daughter said

trusting the words
the bubbles in the bottle

fell asleep
and dreamed of being

real.
1.7k · Sep 2018
SHORE LEAVE
Donall Dempsey Sep 2018
SHORE LEAVE

the sea louder in the dark
throwing off its shackles
walking into town

mystified seagulls
flying over with a caw
a sea no longer there

a tram screeching
on its points
the sea jumps aboard

the sea sat at the bar
somehow getting its vast bulk
perched upon a high stool

the sea enjoying the karaoke
singing along to The Honeydippers
eating bag after bag of peanuts

"Have ye no beds to go home to!"
barks a barman
his belly slopping over his belt

the sea happy
to escape itself
even for the time being

drunk on being
human if only for a while
the sea staggers back to the shore
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