It’s Ok! I’ve Got It All...Figured Out! (For S) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

Being born
into a family of
10

I’m
at that age
when

I’m
...trying to...figure it...
all out about

not only where I came from
but why
& how?

Why won’t anybody tell me anything!

Being(even then)
an avid watcher of old black & white movies

(even colour films that I had see in the cinema were black and white
on our telly and it could be sunny outside and raining in the TV but that’s another mystery)

I read between the
- - lines – -

inferred
- between-each-successive-frame-

what was really
going on.

It took
me a while

to
cop
on

but suddenly the penny
dropped

(why hadn’t I noticed it before) .

The doctor arrives
in the middle of the night
in the middle of a storm

dismounts his horse
or Model T-Ford

clutching a little
black bag.

The mummy is in bed
with what looks like

bad tummy ache

(probably something she ate) .

Rolling up his shirt sleeves
the doc goes to work.

The doc demands
that he be got:

“Hot water(lots of it)
& towels at once! ”

What a time to
take a bath

(must be really sweaty
from riding so fast) .

He disappears
up stairs.

A man
with a job to do.

The daddy appears & disappears
walking back & forth...pacing back & forth

& has suddenly
taking up smoking cigarettes.

He looks worried
as if it is he who is
going to have the baby.

Suddenly as dawn
dawns

a cry is heard &
heard again.

Everyone is so happy
especially the mummy.

The doc departs
clutching his little
black bag.

Suddenly
all is revealed

as I put 2 & 2 together
...come up with
5!

How could I have been so
stupid!

The answer was(of course)
staring me in the face

All this
time!

The doctor
smuggled in
(the baby)
in his little black bag.