POEMS BY DONALL DEMPSEY

THE ONLY WAY OF LOOKING AT A BIRD
( for Glyn Pope )

she looked at the bird
with all of her self
as if by some alchemy
of thought
she flew into
its shape
as it became the air
her mind opening
its wings
to the sky
the house now
a little blue egg
far far below her
her voice curving
into a beak
that flung its being
into the song
of self
scrawled across
a sky
becoming sunset
so that
becoming human
again
was a grief
that could only be
expressed
in birdsong.
​

THE MAP OF THE MOMENT

I open the hole
where the words come out

but there is no sound to be
seen.

I check the mirror
but it too is deaf.

I shut the hole.

The words fill up
inside me.

Only the silence 
has a voice.

I search for a map
of the next moment

but there is none 
at hand and

when I do
acquire one

the moment 
has passed.

The map
useless.

CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT
( To Betty Patton )

The Old Year is
nowhere 

to be seen.

It had escaped
out the back door

when the bells
went crazy.

The bells!
The bells!

The New Year now
but a moment

old.

It looked about
itself.

"Oh brave New World that
has such creatures in it!"

it Shakespeares.

We all wondered what
the New Year would do

but
it only wet itself.

The rain came down
Biblically.

"Ah, I see Life is
throwing a party!"

I said to the other
newly dead beside me.

"What I can't stand is
being haunted..."

said the new ghost

"...by the living!"

"I just want to rest
in peace if you please!"

The New Year
looked about it

wondering what on earth
it was 

going to do.

I WEAR LONG SLEEVES EVEN IN SUMMER

Blue bruises
bloom on my skin.

I wear long sleeves
even in summer.

First, I lost
my smile

it somehow
floated away.

( Blue bruises
bloom on my skin. )

Next, I lost
my flesh

until I was nothing
but skin and bone.

My curves...my breasts
vanished into themselves.

"All...something...is...grass!"
I quoted to myself.

( I wear long sleeves
even in summer. )

The woman in the mirror
who claims she's me

isn't
...isn't!

A stranger holds 
my eye.

I...I
looked away.

Blue bruises
bloom on my skin.

I wear long sleeves
even in summer.