Death Of A Great Future Actor Poem by Dónall Dempsey

The cows
in the byre

stand still
as statues

we can almost
imagine

Their frosty breaths
warming the infant
Jesus

who looks like a
a doll

a little girl
would get for Christmas
& be delighted with.

It’s a girl
doll

but what’s sex or gender
got to do with it.

Mary & Joseph
look petrified

as any 8 year old
would

miraculously transposed
here

to centre
stage

under the hot lights
& the intense gaze

of the many headed
monster

an audience is

blinded with flashes
as proud mothers & fathers

record
for posterity

Mary & Joseph
(they actually are Mary & Joseph)

in their terrific
terrification

a teacher(usually
so nice to them)

almost hissing
like a snake

(and swearing by mistake)

“Pick the f***ing baby up
...ooops! ”

A wise man
(the second wise man to be precise)
pisses himself
and is led off
in howls

of laughter
that the audience
drowns
him in.

“Never again…never again! ”
he repeats in shock

as he, a future
Geilgud or Burton

is lost to us.

So terrified
as never

to tread the boards ever
ever again.