Building The Boat(For Janice) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

Finally!

We make it
out of the bedroom!

Days becoming nights nights becoming days
(nothing but cuddles)
making endless endless love.

Leaving the sacredness
of this our bed

the nakedness of our embrace

(as if we were Adam & Eve
thrown out of the Garden of Paradise)

merely to wee
or make a cup of tea

(as is the English custom)

which we then
leave...go...cold.

Time
no longer

scarred by its human markings
leaving behind such meaningless things

as minutes days or hours.

Time now
composed only of

our love.

Shipwrecked now
in the vast sea of downstairs

we crawl to
the safety of a sofa.

Perched prim & proper
(being all English)

and nakedly eating
cucumber sandwiches.

You laugh & tell me
it is ye olde English custom.

One I could easily
get accustomed to

its nakedness
greatly appeals to me.

But now
wanting to lie

in each other’s embrace again

we struggle
with limbs

to accommodate
ourselves

upon this too tiny
sofa.

as if we were
an illustration

for a lavish edition of
The Kama Sutra.


Finally!
We discover...invent...create
(call it what you will)

the beauty of what we
will come to call

“The Boat.”

Your toes
flutter by my ears

my toes
fluttering by yours

locked into position
joined at the hips.

Locked
into this open embrace

able to
all at once

stroke each other
here...or...there

whilst gazing into
each other’s eyes

reach out and touch
the side of a face

(or the barest of cheeks)

or the nakedness of the crease
between inner thigh and...

or
any other place

you’d care to imagine
or even mention.

And so
with this wonder of human construction

(our marvellous engineering
of each other’s flesh)

such skill
such lover’s ingenuity

we merrily
(merrily)

row our boat

gently
gently in our dream

letting Time
(once again go hang)

float
float...away.

Our minds drifting

upon the seas of our
heightened senses.

Locked in love
& laughter

I teaching you
the Irish for it

“Gra agus gaire! ”
“Gra agus gaire! ”

“Love & laughter! ”
“Love & laughter! ”

Us eating
(either each other or)
endless naked cucumber sandwiches

as is
(so you assure me)

the English way

and I happily adopting
to its custom

quoting Alice
in our wonderland

of love &
devotion.

“It’s my own invention! ”
as the White Knight would say.

Our boat
transporting us

to both
sleep or ecstasy

sleep

or

ecstasy.