The Leap: A Poem For Bono—By PJ

Young Bono (watercolor, manipulated at Photomosh.com) by Kelly Eddington, 2019.

Young Bono (watercolor, manipulated at Photomosh.com) by Kelly Eddington, 2019.

The Leap: A Poem For Bono

PJ DeGenaro

Happy Bono’s birthday, family! Sometimes all I can do is turn him into some sort of archetype or folkloric hero. Of course, I believe he is one. How many of us have talked about U2 pulling us out of the darkness—private or shared? Tá solas ann. 

The Leap

From a safe distance

You looked as small as Hop O’ My Thumb

An orphaned fox kit, lost

At the bottom of the deep valley.

You carried only the weapons of childhood: 

Sharpened pencils, a few stones, a loud voice,

A secret agent decoder ring and X-ray specs 

Ordered from the back of a comic book.

Maybe you found a jackknife in the trash,

Wiped it clean on the leg of your jeans

And slipped it into your pocket. Just in case.

I was lost in the valley too.

I mean, who wasn’t?

That was the year the shadow grew and grew

Till it enshrouded the forest.

We were all left to ourselves, addled and cold

Walking, sometimes crawling through the night

Through the sticking thorns and the deep snow, 

Through the stinking mud and the leaf-mold

Toward where we thought we could hear other voices—

Rustlings, murmurs, small hitches of breath.

And what joy when you saw a face,

A thin smile flickering in the dark,

Before the hands flew up to cover.

That’s close enough! Stay back!

Noli me tangere.

Still, I fancied I could follow your tracks

If I kept my face to the ground.

The prints of your nimble black feet,

Tufts of your ginger pelt, your white ruff.

They say you crept into the lair of the Ogre of Death.

They say you stole his seven-league boots

And fit them to your feet,

Then leapt to the top of the canopy

And perched there, warbling at the sky

Among the visionary owls, the all-hearing bats.

And you shook and  troubled the highest branches

Till the sun pierced through

And everyone finally looked up.

Previous
Previous

The Miracle (Of Bono’s Indentation)—By PJ and Kelly

Next
Next

U2 Speed Painting Film Festival—By Kelly