Blue Gillyflowers Poem by Dónall Dempsey

A white cambric petticoat
lies splashed upon the bracken

a discarded panties
as pretty as any flower

gazing up at a sky
that hasn’t changed

for thousands of years
gazing down upon our entwined

naked limbs

Time only
this moment

I go & gather water
to feed your thirst

from a little storybook
babbling brook

that lives
nearby

I cup its silver
coldness in my hands

you drink delicately
from my palms

lapping with a little
pink tongue

like a wild timid
creature

ready to bolt away
in a startled moment

held only in the magic

spell of love

The cold castle walls
wrapped in their mantles of history

remain aloof
above all this

all too human love

that comes and goes

like summer flowers.