The words <br />come to me <br /> <br />demanding to be <br />written <br /> <br />& are bitterly <br />disappointed <br /> <br />to find that I am <br />me <br />not <br />you. <br /> <br />Somehow, they had managed to <br />turn up in the wrong head <br /> <br />mistaking me for you <br />because I was thinking <br /> <br />so much <br />of you. <br /> <br />Too late now <br />they come to realise <br /> <br />their mistake. <br /> <br />Reluctantly they <br />agree to stay & be <br /> <br />this <br />poem. <br /> <br />I can see they are not <br />impressed. <br /> <br />Missing Bulgaria & ending up <br />in England in an Irish head <br /> <br />is bad but badder still <br />geting the sex wrong <br /> <br />& being this guy! <br /> <br />A word breaks down <br />begins to cry. <br /> <br />'She's got what the Arabs call tarab! ' <br />one word is heard to remark. <br /> <br />Yes...yes it's that intoxication of the senses <br />beyond all reason! ' <br />another word elucidates....almost hallucinates. <br /> <br />'Hey shit for brains! ' <br />a bunch of words cruelly calls <br /> <br />'Onelia would have written us <br />better than this! ' <br /> <br />Some words try to hide <br />in the space between the lines. <br /> <br />Some words hide <br />in the surrounding empty space <br /> <br />refusing to come out <br />or even talk about <br /> <br />...'it! ' <br /> <br />Some words live lives <br />of quiet desperation <br /> <br />silently <br />erasing themselves. <br /> <br />Some words hijack <br />this page <br /> <br />& turning it into <br />a paper aeroplane <br /> <br />demand to be <br />taken to Sofia. <br /> <br />They are already incensed <br />to have missed your birthday. <br /> <br />So, if by your dreaming head <br />a paper aeroplane appears <br /> <br />full of frustrated distraught <br />words <br /> <br />take them <br />they are yours. <br /> <br />You the better poet <br />than I could ever be. <br /> <br />You... the great you <br />me...merely me.<br /><br />Dónall Dempsey<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/tarab-poem-for-onelia-on-the-celebration-of-the-day-of-her-birth/
