No Place For Tears Poem by Dónall Dempsey

I was aware
of every cell in my body
yet I was unknown
to myself and...hollow.

My soul had gathered
each individual cell of me
into itself
and hid each cell of me
in her

invisible
&
inviolate.
People with no faces
voiceless
in white coats
strangers I was somehow familiar with...

one
nodded
and the electricity ate through each cell
ravenously
screaming in a whisper:
“I am your Death
...know me! ”

My skeleton tried
to tear itself from my flesh
ripping through the body’s softness
to escape each successive surge
yet it fell back into
the flesh
like a drowned man
unable to escape the water
that loves him.

The voiceless faceless people
stood motionless
as my soul
escaped
through the whites of my eyes
rolled back into my head
my mind cowered in a corner
of the room

like a scared child
frightened in her nightie
at the top of the stairs
and Mummy & Daddy
screaming
in a past
that was supposedly hers.
Tears in her eyes.
The electricity laughed
my soul
grasped in her fiery hand

its essence
chewed in two
immortality dripping from its mangled remains.
The electricity sang in me
in a long high sing song whine
and even God was afraid.
What seemed like centuries after

I could hear laughter
sounded just like me
that was mine
and I opened eyes
that weren’t mind
and tried to cry
with eyes that weren’t mine.
But this was no place
for tears.