AND IF YOU HEAR ME SPEAK
( for Granny Dempsey )

And if you hear me speak
of the greenest goosegogs

then it is obviously
the summer of '63

with the sunlight of that year
trapped within them.

And if you hear me speak
of goosegogs and a certain year

then I most certainly will be
talking of my blind granny

who used her crooked hands
to sculpt my face into being

and I am here
because her blind hands

saw me so
completely

I was made
anew each year

as if I had
never been

before but
am now.

And if you hear me speak
of goosegogs, the year of '63

and my blind
Cork granny

then you will know
that I speak of

the gentlest love
I have ever known.

Now I will speak no more
for I have said everything

that can be said and that
goes beyond all saying.