Surviving The Songs That Will Survive Us(For St) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

Surviving The Songs That Will Survive Us





Innocently

passing the radio

singing its heart out

two floors above me

balanced precariously on a window sill



its voice

reached out

& grabbed me

back into the forgotten past

kidnapping me from



the intricate intricacies of the present

that fall as gentle as rain

& once again

I was in love

and it was summer

in my heart



& I say each

trembling word

into her

hair...her...ear

my lips tasting the sweetness

of her sweat



the softness of

her breast...her breath

the flounce of her ra-ra skirt

'...and he'll kiss

your lips



& caress your waiting fingertips

and your heart...your heart's...'

when with a start

I stopped a step short

of instant decapitation



as the radio

smashed on the pavement

before my startled right foot

my left stopped

in mid-step



a second short of destruction.

I gaze up

and see

a naked female posterior

placed precariously there

where the radio should be



by an obviously too ardent lover

invisible except for

his fingers clutching female buttocks!

I wave away

their apologies



(ah...lovers!)

glad to be still here

but on the look-out

now



for those old love songs

that want you either

dead or alive.