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 tightly
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

and 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
and now I will speak no more
for I have said everything

that can be said
and that
goes beyond all saying