Today's Clouds And Skies(For Jan) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

Here in a deserted
bomb site

(a left over from
the Blitz)

my 5 year old self
(protected by thick muffler
& neat gaberdine mac)

stares in wonder
(stopped now in her play)

as she discovers

half a house
half a washbasin
half a bedroom floor

as if a giant invisible hand had
playfully(mischievously) taken away

the other half
that should be there.

The other half
more real now in its absence

not realising that
Life itself

can be
cut in two

& half lives on and
half dies into History

become a letter
held forever

in the bottom corner of a
drawer

a memory
forgotten now

or remembered by
a fading few

or a little girl
watching in horror

as rain
clutches at

the wallpaper roses

plucks &
peels them

(one by one)

from half
a living room wall

half a fireplace
still attempting to warm

what is no longer
there

weeds & wild flowers
weeds & wild flowers

laughing &
running riot

up a staircase

that leads to

nowhere
(nowhere)

except today's
clouds and skies.