My Uncle's old blue van <br />our delighted childhood <br /> <br />transported from train to farm <br />creator of our Summer <br /> <br />holiday <br /> <br />as magical as anything <br />could have been <br /> <br />to our open <br />innocent minds <br /> <br />lies forgotten <br />& forgetting <br /> <br />behind the barn <br />rusting in rain <br /> <br />stung by sun <br />in summers come & gone <br /> <br />an orange rust <br />delicate as lace <br /> <br />chewing like cancer <br />into its solid blue body. <br /> <br />A chicken drives it now <br />perched upon its steering wheel <br /> <br />going nowhere <br />fast <br /> <br />clucking'' Get outta de way! ' <br /> <br />Rotted rubber <br />still clinging to the wheels <br /> <br />like flesh <br />leaving bone <br /> <br />protected by gangs <br />of highly strung nettles <br /> <br />ravished by weeds <br />& overgrown trees <br /> <br />me & some newly laid eggs <br />jostled together in the passenger seat <br /> <br />a cockerel crowing <br />he has all the back seat <br /> <br />the windshield <br />flecked with years <br /> <br />of flattened flies <br />a multitude of squashed bugs <br /> <br />as we speed <br />into the past <br /> <br />meeting my own ghost <br />with tears in my eyes.<br /><br />Dónall Dempsey<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/meeting-my-own-ghost-for-barry/
