' ' ' ' ' 'Flames Of Water Poem by Dónall Dempsey

The white white walls
of the swimming pool

are on fire
with the reflections

of the water
distorting our

every movement.

Flames of water
dance upon walls

as you emerge
from these Sunday waters

like a Venus
in a clinging wool costume.

Me clammed up
tight as a shell

unable to
tell

you
'I love you! '

Now far away from
that time

the watery flames
of my pre-pubescent

desire

still burns
through all those years.

I forever nine...
...you forever ten.