Questions! Questions! (For Scarlett) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

As a little kid
I asked myself
questions

such as
why

this body
& not another

why this mind
and not my brother’s

what is it like
to be

inside my brother’s mind

why is he he
& not me?

The how
of why?

How do I know
...I know?

Where does
Time go

& why is it
never really now

but
going or gone?

Are these people
really my parents?

My father
...my father?

My mother
... my mother?

Maybe I’m
a changeling!

Idle
thoughts
(admittedly)

&
then

a football
or a skipping rope

hopscotching
or kiss chasing

distracted me

& I never
realised

I had discovered
Philosophy

on my own.

Mary Ann Kelly’s kiss
transcending

...everything.