She treasures <br />the book. <br /> <br />It never leaves <br />her hands <br /> <br />leather bound <br /> <br />sweet & soft <br />as suede <br /> <br />She caresses <br /> <br />it <br />& it <br /> <br />caresses her <br /> <br />her fingertips <br />trace <br /> <br />the gold <br />embossed letters <br /> <br />LEAVES OF GRASS <br /> <br />she can’t <br />read <br /> <br />but has memorised <br /> <br />each line <br />each page <br />each word <br /> <br />knows how <br />& where <br /> <br />it all goes <br /> <br />learnt <br />by heart <br /> <br />amazing all the illiterate ears <br />that hear her <br /> <br />she amasses <br />all the voices <br /> <br />of anyone who ever <br />read it to her <br /> <br />as I read it <br />to her now <br /> <br />this <br />the gift <br /> <br />of a long ago love <br />(now long dead) <br /> <br />who read it <br />to her first <br /> <br />a young woman <br />madly in love <br /> <br />unschooled in words <br />and flesh <br /> <br />being touched <br />with a passion <br /> <br />a naked <br />desire for words <br /> <br />being read to <br />by her first and only love <br /> <br />the words live <br />inside her <br /> <br /> <br />undaunted by old age <br /> <br /> <br />she sings <br />of her self <br /> <br />her lips <br />follow mine <br /> <br />line after line <br /> <br />and when I stop <br />she... <br /> <br />...continues on <br />and then <br /> <br />waits for my voice <br />to catch up <br /> <br />I follow after her <br />stumbling through the years <br /> <br />She strokes <br />the inscription <br /> <br />as if it were a person <br /> <br />kisses the letters <br />as if they were the lips <br />that first read to her <br /> <br />TO MY DEAREST EMILY <br />LOVE ALWAYS JOHN <br />1933. <br /> <br />“John...John...John! ”<br /><br />Dónall Dempsey<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/endlessly-rocking/
