Carrier Poem by Dónall Dempsey

I carry her
piggyback


through leaves & laughter
splashed with sunlight


across fields
of summer


as if we were
the one


creature
Dad & daughter


or I her
St. Christopher

her riding high
on my shoulders

over stream
after stream.

She clasping my curls
to steer her noble steed.


Always seeing the world
from atop of me.


She my little bird
I her perch.

Crawling now into bed
cuddled into my back

her words sleepy
on my shoulders

where I carry her still
...into my dreams.