All So Perfectly Still Poem by Dónall Dempsey

Remember racing
to the top of that hill

as we seemed to climb
into the sky

higher higher

neck & neck
until

you floored me
with a rugby tackle

& we fell
laughing

limbs all a tumble
entangled

& we lay
all so perfectly still

letting the grass grow
up between our toes

listening to the world
with our backs

two stranded starfish
with interlaced fingers.

And how
when it rained we didn’t
move

just lay there
all so perfectly still

soaking it all up
drinking the world in

saturated with delight
drenched to the skin

our clothes
sculpted to our bodies

like effigies in churches

a knight & lady
held forever in stone

& I turned to see
your smiling face

strange & horizontally happy

your mouth
open

drinking rain
laughing

your lipstick mouth

and I soaking
you all in

never ever forgetting

what I knew then

and we lay
all so perfectly still

letting the sun
dry us naturally

clinging to a hillside
somewhere in England

out of this world

waving at
the satellite
talking our photograph

at one
with the universe

stretching out
before us

our love.