Can Ghosts Die? (Sequence) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

*******
REMEMBER.

The garden
remembers you.

Summer(even in its dying)
remembers too.

Night, bright
with stars remembers you.

Flowers
remember the touch of your hand

when they were only seeds
dreaming of evenings

such
as
these.

Midnights
remember your presence

unable to
understand

your absence.

Silences
remember your laughter.

Water, chuckling
remembers your love

of it
like a child

unable to understand
your death.

Only I
trying not to remember

the nearness
of your kiss

unable to
forget.

*******

CAN GHOSTS DIE?

Missing you so
much

I become
my ghost

travel to your death.

Here,
once more we kiss.

Each kiss
a cut

until my ghost
bleeds

real blood.

Each kiss
a tear

until my ghost
cries out & cries

real tears.

Each kiss
a mortal wound

until my ghost
dies

back into
being

the flesh & blood
of me

without you.

Your face
as if far away smiling

trapped behind
the glass

of our
favourite photograph.

*******

MOMENTO.

In the dark
a match strikes

lights up your smile
& that last cigarette.

Neat as ever
(you put the match
back in the box)

Your laughter
blown away

scattered over
an unseen sea

talking to itself
as if maddened with grief.

“Look..? ”
you chuckle

“...not only the last ciggie
but that was

the only match
left in the box! ”

“God! I would have died
without a fag! ”

...the rest of your words
snatched by a sudden...

gust of wind
from the still unseen sea.

The moon
nowhere to be found.

Now, in the years
unknown to you

that only
your death

can visit

I keep
(still)

in a matchbox

that last match
& curled up beside it

your laughter


both tiny &
fragile as memory.

******