My Discoverer Of Words! (For Lyn) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

Little girl child
discoverer of words
explorer of worlds
that sounds create

endlessly I
listen

to you
talking to
yourself

totally enraptured
as you introduce

the words
to yourself.

“Tilly...words! ”
“Words...Tilly! ”

“Come words come! ”
you command them

like a little Queen
as if they were living beings.

Weighing each sound
and its colour

you
taste them

on your tongue

measure them
in your mind

words full
of meaning

or no meaning at all

just sound
enjoying itself

this feast of
language

day by day
I give you gifts

of strange words
you have no use of

just for you
to enjoy

(it so annoys your Mum) .

“Kookabura! ”
“Kookabura? ”

You play with it
for hours
as if it were a toy.

telling me: “Tilly
being silly! ”

Now I listen to
you “Not-talk! ”

(as you call silence)

your mind still
visible

wrestling with words
inside your head

little girl child
explorer & discoverer

of the worlds
within words.