L’etoile De Mer(The Starfish) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

For years
I had known your eyes

looked at them
in dreams

although unseen
‘til now

for years
I had known your eyes

would be
the eyes I loved

to look into
but having to wait

(prepared patiently
to wait)

for the reality
of you

to happen
to me

& now I watch
over your sleeping

still dreaming
of the fancy dress party

from which
we have just returned

in this early
mist of dawn

false eyes
drawn on eyelids

opening now
in closing

staring back
at me

from the threshold
of who you are

hair black
as a raven’s wing

an orange starfish
still clutched

in your dreaming
hand

I too falling
asleep

me telling myself

“Vous ne revez pas...vous ne revez pas! ”

******

And this is the story of how that starfish got to be there in the first place!


L’ETOILE(The Star)

Unable to swim
but willing to dive

I plunge
from the honeymoon

boat left bobbing
on a blue

created with
sunlight & water

I dive
to the bottom of the sea

become a fish
flippered & snorkled

hold now
a starfish

clutched in my hand

fascinated until
gazing up

I see above me
the dreaming boat

asleep on
a thin blue line

of sunlight & water

& I
70ft below
it

I suddenly realising
I can’t swim

somehow make it
back to the surface

holding the starfish

that you sleeping now

clutch
in your dreaming

hand.