Christmas Is Coming! Poem by Dónall Dempsey

BUT THE FIRE IS SO DELIGHTFUL!

Frosty the Snowman
is outraged
as you take two
snowballs

& give him a
more feminine aspect.
He soon gets used to
his sex change

& is happy to be
Miss Frosty
especially when we build 'her'
a more macho looking mate.

And oh by the placement
of that carrot
one can see he is pleased
to see her.

I watch the words
emerge from you
in a little white cloud
that slowly

advances towards
me
as if we were cartoons

the words
I love you
melting against my face.

Mr. & Mrs
Snowman
smiling
laughing.

*******

OH THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS FRIGHTFUL!

Naked
we run out into the snow
delighted at its appearance

you covered me
with a blanket of snow
then lay on me
‘til even the coldness melted

licking snowflakes
off my eyelids
we shivered with
excitement

more snow falling
on your shoulders
on your hair
as we became our own
snowman...snowwoman.

*******

FAR FAR AWAY

She only knows that she does not know.
Tears in her eyes blur the real and unreal.
Her world falling apart in the falling snow.

She can only feel that she can not feel
(The bitter cold invades her soul) .
She only knows that she does not know.

She feels so...stupid...she feels such...a fool.
Church bells shatter the silence peal after peal
her world falling apart in the falling snow.

Voices in her head she can’t control
memories that only pain can reveal
her world falling apart in the falling snow.

Ice steals across the pool.
Only the snow knows what it attempts to conceal.
She only knows that she does not know...
...her world falling apart in the falling snow.

*******

SNOW FALLS

She wakes to a morning
with no reason for living
cries in the mirror
to be forgiven.

Puts on her makeup
takes off her clothes
sits there & bleeds
until she can’t feel

the blood in her veins
...runs cold.
The cat cries
to be fed.

The batteries in her Walkman
go dead.
The Rachmaninov stops.

A letter she will never read
drops on the Welcome mat.
A mobile rings & rings &...stops.

A member of a minor political party
looking for her vote
rings the doorbell twice
slips on the ice & ruins his coat.

Curses.

A man laughs at another man’s joke.
It’s a big laugh...he’s a big bloke.
Laughter invades the square.

There’s a chill in the air.
A friend calls for her
(to go on a blind date)

...she doesn’t hear.
Snow...
...snow...
...snow falls.


*******


LET IT SNOW...LET IT SNOW... LET IT SNOW!

Your breath hangs in the air
like a speech bubble.
Words & laughter
melt
like snowflakes on the tongue.

* * *

Your death hangs in the air
like a burst bubble.
Dearest ghost...

only love & memory
holds you near.


*******
A SINGLE SNOWFLAKE

And I awake
inside the dream
desperately trying to find
a single snowflake

in a snowstorm
lost in the past
forever happening

a single snowflake
landing on my tongue
as I looked up
and the storm began

so gently &
then
cruell as a tyrant
terrifying the land

with a cold
iron hand
& how we hugged
& kissed

clung
to ourselves
for all we were worth

like a bell rung wildly
shattering the sky
love depositing us
in this gentle bed

smiling at
our humanness.

*******

CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS

Feeling merry we
Sing Tra la la la la la...
But soon change our tune

You put your new stockings on
& soon it’s an...Oh la la!