Light Years Away(For Junie) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

My big sister
bathes me

she is almost twice
my age

light years it seems
ahead of me

she loses me
in a fluffy towel

& tries not
to smile

as somewhere
my voice

announces
from within the towel

that '...when I
grow up...? '

'You know what
...Junie? '

'No, what
darling...? '

'I'm gonna
marry you! '

'Oh really? ''
'Really! '

'That's nice! '

'Now, you're nice
& clean! '

Then she kisses me
& puts me alseep.

I lose myself
in dreams.

I grow up
& she goes away

becomes a newspaper
article

about a bus
crash.

I still listen
to her voice

her smile

now

light years away.