Nightmares Upon Waking
All remembrances of you in waking
Became settlers in my sleep
And every night when I am dreaming,
I kiss and hold you as I did.
Though I washed my conscious self of you,
What’s beneath it can’t forget —
Your shape, your form and your warmth too
Are still detailed within,
And plagues my dreams with fantasies
Of us without an end.
But nightmares start when I wake and see,
At first light on the bed,
The empty air and smoothened sheets
Where you, asleep, should be —
A grim reminder of phantasms ending
To the shock of reality
And that though I said I’m no longer longing,
My dreams still long for thee.
Waves Without Sounds 