Dream 47 (Poetry)

He camped outside my window
laid seige to my front door
this stranger I was quite convinced
I’d never seen before

Yet he called me like a lover —
his voice caressed my name
and I shivered in confusion
wild with thoughts I couldn’t tame

He was ardent in his courting —
he just would not go away
I kept silent and ignored him
he grew thinner day by day

I could feel his eyes upon me
every time I looked outside
till sheer pity overwhelmed me
and eventually I cried

“What is it that you want from me? —
I don’t know who you are!
Whatever game you’re playing at
it’s clearly gone too far!

“Please leave at once for goodness sake
I haven’t slept a wink
since you arrived I can’t relax
I’m too strung-out to think!”

I watched as his expression changed
bones rattled at his sigh
I saw the starving ghost of love
that lingered in his eye

“I am the sum of boyish hearts
rejected long ago
you cast aside still-beating gifts
to perish in the snow

“I have come back so you will know
the reason you’re alone
you’ve lived too long in your cold world —
your self-made Arctic zone”

At that he gathered up old dreams
retreating through my gate
words bled like wounds — I called to him
but knew I called too late

I woke to birdsong — trembling
to face the day ahead
the blush of shame hot on my skin
bore truth to all he’d said

Deep-buried roots of longing tugged —
he’d always been the one
the frost inside me found the light
pride melted in the sun