Last Stop Now... Please! Poem by Dónall Dempsey

Squeezed
like the last gasp

of an empty tube
of toothpaste

we somehow
manage to squeeze

ourselves unto
the Tube

as a bodiless voice
cautions us to

“Mind the closing doors! ”

We stand
face to face

can’t escape
each other’s

physical presence.

It is our first date.

The doors open again

(bodiless voice
yet again)

warns us:

“Mind the Gap! ”

But there is no gap
between us

as the heat begins to
melt us one into
the other.

We are joined at the hip
molecule by molecule.

My erection prods you
to remember you to remember

I am
here

hard

to
forget

...really?

I apologise.

Say: “I’m sorry
...so sorry! ”

But then I think I’m not sorry
in the least...that’s lies.

“Hi! ”
I smile
“...this is a...eh...stick up! ”

You’ve already
got your hands up

(strap hanging)
& can
only grin &

tell me you take it
as a huge compliment

& so it goes
until we get off

at the stop just before
Embankment.

“Woah... oh I say! ”
you say.

“For a minute there
I thought we were

going to go

all the way! ”