Bare Bones Poem by Dónall Dempsey

We go everywhere
together
do everything
together.

Well Woman Centre?
There I am
holding your hand
while you have a cervical smear
(you insistent I be there) .

The doctor scowls.
I know you
inside
out.

Now, here
an X-ray
displays you
and your skull
stares back at me

glowing in ghostly
wonder.
I gaze at
the bare bones of you.
Your voice
talks to the nurse

but like a ventriloquist
it seems to come
from your grinning skeleton.
That night
I hold you
in your sleep

holding your dreams
in my embrace
comforted by
the warmth
of your all too human
flesh.