FIELDS OF GOLD

18/04/202017/04/2020 / deuxiemepeau / 2 Comments

Gold grows in many ways-
like how the soil can be pressed with seed,
how a daisy decorates that which has been deserted,
how the sun burns at a safe distance
or at least it did, once.
All is relative, now, to time-
I didn’t know what ozone meant as a boy,
or Wifi or gluten free or panic or pandemic
but there were days when I could have cradled distancing
when school corridors closed in too tight
on skin that hadn’t been taught tough.
Gold grows in many ways
as we find a new rhythm of crossing over into fields
once forgotten where daises make waves instead of chains
and farmers strive to find fortune
for us all in fields of food.

All words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

WATER FLAMES

06/04/202003/04/2020 / deuxiemepeau / 2 Comments

We moved, once, and habitual was your foot to my follow,
in debt my blush to your concern

like we were the oxygen of the other, at either ends of the water.

We swam, once, to the other, in crossed currents, in avoidance
of those cold-blooded fish dipping their blond hairs
into clotted canals that your darker locks turned briefly bland,

the beginnings of a ballet in two parts, you the body and I the babble

written in flame on the water

in this city sucked from the sea with its ferry, crossing and connecting,
as habitual to its route as I became to the curve of your spine.

You were fire and I the fury. Or was as I the fire and you the flight?

We lit fires, for moments, on the water, flames that found their place,
finally, in the stars, fading before fully noticed.

We moved, once, as if each was the compliment to the other’s jewel
even if we knew that time was not the compliment to the us

that danced, for a time, as a flame, on the surface of the water.

If I was still there, by that water, waiting for the blue ferry, crossing,
I would habitually dip foot into current to test its temperature.

All words and photographs by Damien B Donnelly

Inspired by a Twitter Prompt

FROM AFAR

26/09/201923/09/2019 / deuxiemepeau / 6 Comments

In Space
is the silence so sacred
that stillness is a solace
to the spinning?

Are star lights
like dainty daisies that illuminate the night?

Is the earth
but a beacon of beauty
when viewed from afar,
so far that you cannot hear
Man and his kind
screaming?

All words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

This is a repost for a week of Stars and Moon

BITTER BRIDGES

01/08/201926/07/2019 / deuxiemepeau / 2 Comments

Clouds cross the skies and trains cross countries
while we cross each other only at jagged junctions
and obstinate intersections, cluttered with catastrophes
or below bitter bridges that bridge no boundaries,
basked only in blackness, always shadow, never light,
always almost, never right here, right now, right moment,
while clouds still cross skies and trains still trail onwards,
while distance is never denied to those on the right track.

All words and photographs by Damien B Donnelly

This is a re-post

HOOKED

09/01/201822/01/2018 / deuxiemepeau / 3 Comments

Time washes onwards

but I recall each wave

I welcomed

over body

like a cover of comfort

like a blanket of trust,

a surrender to the water

warm, deep breath and dive

without drowning,

I recall each wave

but forget

how far it swept

from the shore,

how it left

each time

with a wanting

for more

as I drifted further

though I cannot swim

I am only fool

not fish

and how you fished…

how your hook cut

so deep.

All words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

Audio version available on SoundCloud…

THE QUEST ACROSS THE SEA

09/04/201724/01/2018 / deuxiemepeau / 2 Comments

Day 9; National Poetry Writing Month #NaPoWriMo

Wander, he thought, and wander did he
across the land and over the sea,
adventure, he thought, but distraction came free
as distance dissolved the boundary.

For a while, he thought, a while to flee,
to see what rests, to see what can be,
understand, he said, this need to flee,
understand, accept and set it free.

Relax, he thought, and relax did he
across the land and over the sea,
feel, he thought, the possibility,
let dreams delight in discovery.

But hold, he though, what you cannot see,
those hearts you left across the sea,
release, he said, if it’s not to be,
all bonds too fragile you must set free.

Just fly, he thought, all across the sea
fly like a bird, uncaged, and set free,
draw the vision and see what can be,
feed on the flames of positivity.

For a while, he thought, a while to flee,
your name, your nation, their opinion of me,
but to find yourself again is the key
and not lose yourself in that quest to be free.

All Words by Damien B. Donnelly. My own self portrait aged 18

Audio version available at Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/damien-donnelly-2/the-quest-across-the-sea