' ' ' Childhood Tankas Poem by Dónall Dempsey

CHIPS OFF THE OLD BLOKE

This face(our face) is
passed amongst us three...brothers.
Each of us wearing
it as our own. Only Dad
owning the original.


********


FIRST LOVE

My name scrawled in chalk
coloured with the confines
of a big red heart.
Your name now...entwined with mine.
Sunlight glints off our glasses.


********

AND THE FIRST SHALL BE LAST

Winning...the sack race!
Me out on my own...winning
by a smile...easy!
Take pity on poor struggling
No.2...ahhh...let him win!


********

L’ÉTRANGER

Here, everything is
foreign...strange...unknown to him
lost now as he...is
in the streets of his childhood.
Everything...as it was...no more.
Written all over my face.

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DÓNALL’S TRAVELS

Here, his big bedroom
shrunk to tiny box room.
His lake...a mere pond.
He now a giant among things
in the lost land of his childhood.