If We Shadows... Poem by Dónall Dempsey

It was as if
a cloud had fallen asleep

in the lower field.

It had already eaten
an unhitched wagon

and half a red barn.

It watched us approaching
from the yellow windowed house

where the babies lay asleep
blowing spit bubbles.

It seemed to smile in a
giant grey candy floss way and then

started in on
first you and then

me or what
was left of me that I could see.

It had eaten all of you
except your excited voice.

All you could see of me
was my nervous laughter.

We had been evicted from
our known selves

and there was no known
forwarding address.

We were all points of
the compass at once.

"Moo! " commented a cow
on the situation at hand.

And "Moo" mimicked the cloud
having had

eaten everything.

There was no place to live
except inside our thoughts

and our thoughts
walked our bodies

towards the barn that
like Mr. Schrödinger's cat

was either there or
either not.

"Moo! " said a moo.
"Moo! " said another moo.

One moo almost the clone
of the other.

We had arrived.
We were now here.

Suddenly our arms legs and other
bits of our bodies was

returned to us
thanks to a light switch

that made us in our own
image.

We owned ourselves again.

The cloud was sleeping
in the field.

One could almost imagine it
snoring.

I clapped my hands together.
"Ok! " I said

"…let's get on with
the milking! '