poem

Woken

In this dream I’m startled from sleep

By the sounds of someone crying 

Curled next to me in a bed

I don’t check to see who it is

Not because I’m callous 

But because, by the law of dreams,

The dreamer already knows 

So I roll over and fall back to sleep,

Into another dream, one where now

I am the one sobbing, maybe

Because there’s no one

Next to me in bed and

It’s cold and the blankets are thin

And the old house creaks

And there’s no one in the room to hear,

To take pity on me, caress me, 

And the nightstand is avalanched

By stacks of unread books.

The only thing to do now

Is to cry myself to sleep

To cry myself to sleep

To keep crying myself asleep

Dream after dream 

Until I wake into a scene 

Where I’m cuddled under warm covers

With the one I already know, just before 

We both drift into dreamless sleep

2/3/23