' ' ' Asparagus Disease(For Onelia) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

Every day
a new word

...left.

Just upped
& left me.

Took a hike.

As if it threw a rope ladder
outta my mouth

& ran off.

Eloped with silence.

Gee that sounds nice...wish I
knew what it meant.


So that I only know LEFT
as to what is not – RIGHT.

If ya know
what I mean?

I don’t know what I mean
...anymore.

Words
(everyday words)
would escape me.

The word leg
dumbfounds me

& that thing on
T
the end of your hand?

Hand...yes, how did you know?

I remember phrases
words & their flavours

But it’s as if
I’ve spilled them &
they’re all jumbled up.

Up the shit
without a canoe
(so to speak) .

Sometimes it’s just the rhythm
Something something something...something
or other.

Science is golden.

No...I don’t know
what it means.

Sounds obscene.

I’ve lost more words
than I could ever forget.


They lie there dead
like soldiers on a battlefield.

Now I know
longer know

WHY
or
ARTICHOKE
or
PATELLA.

This Al...Alzh...
Asparagus Disease’s
killing me.

Words are leaving me
& I want to cry.

But I’ve forgotten
CRY.

The “not” of laughter?

I’ve forgotten
FORGOTTEN.
I see the sound
but remember...nothing.

Someone(who used to
be me)

was always laughing
talking:

“I’m gonna live...’til I die! ”

He was a scream.

Now I just wish
Death
(whatever that is)

would hurry up &
just get on with it.

I imagine Heaven
is a place full of words

&I know them all
& they all

know me.