identifying the specific comments associated with an e

<dataItems>
     <!-- this is a comment about the first item -->
     <item name="itemName1">I1</item>

     <!-- this is a comment about the second item -->
     <!-- this is a follow on comment for 2nd item -->
     <item name="itemName2">I2</item>

     <!-- this is a comment about the third item -->
     <!-- 3rd item also has an additional comment line -->
     <item name="itemName3">I3</item>

     <!-- this is a comment about the fourth item -->
     <item name="itemName4">I4</item>
</dataItems>

In particular I would like to be able to  process one item at a time as
is customarily done with <xsl:apply-templates select="/dataItems/item" />

Thanks,
ap