' ' ' ' Made Only In Dreams(For Lyn) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

'Thumpity thump! '
goes the after midnight ceiling.

'Uh uh...our Briar Rabbit
is on the go again! '|

'Oh...you go! Put her back
to bed then! '
snaps an exasperated Mum.

'And don't be
taken in by none

of her
nonsense! '

I grin.

'Who me? '
'Yeah...you! '

Begin to climb the stair
like a scary monster

so she can't help but know
I'm coming...to get her!

Know I will discover her
hiding under in or on the wardrobe

giggling
invisibly

('cos she's got her eyes closed) .

But no
quiet now as snow

she stares
spookily into space

moonlight staining her face.

An attic window
cutting up the night sky

into a child's toy
of stars & hows & whys.

A universe
of unanswerable questions.

'What are you..? '
(I dare to ask her)
'...staring at! '

The silence fractures
but...holds.

'I'm looking at the silence
filling up the room
after I've gone...bang! '

'I see..! ' I say
suddenly seeing what she's seeing.

'Bed now...
...my little Miss! '

I soothe down
her quiff
with a licked fingertip.

'Shhh..! ' she hisses.
'The moon is asleep

in my
bed! |'

And I look
&...it is!

We both listen to
the moonlight dreaming

it's head
upon her pillow.

Hours after
we are discovered by a sleepy Mummy

who smiling
lets us be.

She curled up into me
I curled around her

coiled on the carpet

she clutching my hair
sucking my thumb.

The guilty moon
having mde its escape

attempting shamefacedly
to climb back into the sky

having fallen
& got entangled

in a skeletony
tree.

Tilly & me
melted together

into this
one human creature

made only
of dreams.