Anam Cara

FIRST WORDS

For Shane O’Donohue

Parents know not what they do

When they coax those first words

Out of you, start a trickle

Of saying that will not cease.

Long after they no longer hear

Your talk, the words they started

Continue to call out for someone

To come near enough to hear

The cadence of what has happened

Deep in the inevitable growing

Heavy and weary of heart

Under the layer of days

Where memory works cold fusions,

As if your voice could carry you

Out of the stillness to the warmth

Of someone who would linger with you

To search the frozen parts for tears

Until a forgotten line fires

Down through the word-hoard

To where your first silence was

Broken, and your rhythm born.