' ' ' ' ' ' Road (For Lyn) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

Ah ha...my little mad scientist
(she all of 3)

brings a jam jar
for me to see.

'What...is it? ' I say

'It's road...of course! '
she announces
annoyed at my usual ignorance.

'Do I have to...teach you everything! '
her sigh suggests.

'The road started
crying in the sun
until it got all snotty
& sticky! '
she excitedly exclaims.

'So i picked it up with a stick
& stuck it in here! '
she explains
in her insane sane way.

The road now
conjealed with fear

gazed profoundly
from its glass prison

looking around for any
possible means of escape

but even it
could see it was

hopless.

'Resistance...' as a Dalek
would put it
'...is useless! '

Courtsey of its glass prism
road shed a small rainbow tear.

'It's gonna live
with me by my bed! '
she decreed.

And so it was
things obeyed her in her
imaginative land.

That night
a large label

addressed
the specimen

in an awkward
childish script

'ROAD! '
it scribbled

glowing in crayon
with its R back to front.

Quiet as a sigh
the road sleeps beside her

in its little glass bed
& almost head to head

its dreams
wind through hers

getting lost
in a tangle of curls.