Gathering Water(For Scarlet) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

Never having
encountered one

before
except in stories

my daughter
begging to be

taken to
the well

the source
of all

her fascination
a magical tale in itself

letting the bucket
fall into the nothingness

that soft splash
as if

from a different
universe

& she
a charmed girl

the well
eating her pebbles eagerly

greedily

as if it were
hungry

for her wonder

the delayed...plop
enthralling her

and again…and...again
even when our store of water

miraculously grows
and we have more water

that we can shake a stick at

she orders
(or commands rather)

“Come…father
let us go & gather

water! ”

And I
(ha ha “Father! ” is it now)

get up
& go

gather water
with my little daughter

enchanted by the fairytale
of her laughter.

*******

On holiday from the real world and living in the wild where our only source of water was a well…it became a ritual to collect firewood and go to the well for water. We would do both of these together and Tilly blended the gathering of sticks with the other task and so we also “gathered” water!

In her fairy stories where Kings were called “Father” by young princesses she also elected to call me “Father! ” which used to reduce her mother to convulsions of laughter.

Tilly as well as being a real live girl was also for me a fairy tale happening in real time.

I saw everything anew through the beauty of her mind.