Kyo No Tobira (Today's Door) - A Sequence - Poem by Dónall Dempsey

KYO NO TOBIRA
(TODAY'S DOOR)

- A SEQUENCE -

1 - MUMONKAN(GATELESS PASS)

Here, now
sister mine

lost
in time

dead to this world

I offer you

my eyes
my ears

so that you
can see...can hear

without fear
of Death

always interrupting you.

Take this breath
& live again.

I can see
enough for two.

*******

2 - MYOJU(THE END OF LIFE)

After the bus crash
her soul walked home

limping awkwardly
now

leaving a trail
of footprints

leaking time
like blood.

*******

3 - KAEI(THE SHADOWS OF FLOWERS)

Often, I visit
this moment

long gone
(that has never ceased to exist) .

I go to find
my sister

calling her name
lost as she is

in the middle
of this vast field

her blue dress
a flower

at the very centre
of it.

Here, Death
does not know her

name

only I
call her.

She carries me home
in a piggyback.

I fascinated
with the freckle

under the shadow
of a curl

where shoulder
meets neck.

I lost
in her laughter.

Both of us
escaping

her
Death.

*******

4 - AME NO UTA(SONGS OF RAIN)

Here, Death
itemises her.

The bruised breast.
The torn spleen.
The broken ribs.
The haemorraging.

Death, leaving
his mark

on this
human being.

Familiar with her.
Owning her.

Memory tiptoes
into Death's great palace

& steals back
a freckle

lost behind
a curl

between
shoulder
& neck.

Death
has no need

for it.