“Dream Encounter”

  

c. 2026 Rod Ice

All rights reserved

(8-26)

 

A dream encounter with the one who departed

Long before our relationship was charted

As an ember gone cold

A surrendering of the soul

I was in love it seems, but lost

Made a mistake that carried quite a cost

One I admittedly, could not pay

Though as a gamble, it had the appeal of an all-in play

I pushed my chips to the center

And took a hit from the public defender

A gavel-strike on the chin

In a contest that I could not win

Yet for a fleeting moment, I sat upright

With my eyes glaring hot, a shimmering sight

And spoke boldly to the magistrate

About what had transpired since our first date

Laughter was the yield of that move

As I realized that there was no glam to my groove

My plea fell like a stone

I left the courtroom, alone

But strangely, some years down the avenue

I see her still, when black overtakes the blue

In the night she is nigh

She descends from the unconscious sky

That visual aid gives me a cause to shake

It hits home like the trembling of an earthquake

As I lie on the mattress

In a state of groggy distress

Tossing freely, as I wonder about the truth

Whether what I see is literally uncouth

Or a simple trick of the mind

A replay of things I had put behind

Her countenance appears as a glistening ring

Bending me in half like a sapling in the spring

Not able to stay tough

When I need to make myself strong enough

To rightly endure

To stay stout, stiff, and pure

That would be an easier task

If not for the rattle of my C-PAP mask

Coming loose

A rush of air pressure mimicking a moose

Its call rousing me from this imaginary meet-and-greet

With the woman who used to make my existence complete

A wrestling match with foes turned invisible

Parts of myself invalid and indivisible

Lobbed into the lake

With a splash of water resulting that finds me awake

Knees up, on the shore

Over the edge of my bed, facing the door

Her face was a clear depiction

Of what I had held while in a much better position

Younger and given to taking risks

Willing to bargain for a cuddle and a kiss

That was my routine

When I chased the glimmer of a twilight moonbeam

On a pier by the edge

Cross-legged on a concrete ledge

Singing softly in her ear

How sad to think that she would so soon disappear

Guitar in hand, strumming sweetly

A message of affection, expressed discretely

Now I am an old relic of yonder days

And she is a prize that I cannot reclaim

Still alive in the highlight reel

That spins like a Catherine Wheel

In my head

A consolation for knowing what I should have done, instead

This leap into the distant past

The veil parting as I find her hand to clasp

And cross the divide

From today into the realm of what still waits on the inside

Jagged slivers of glass remain

That mockingly spell out her name

And I call that notation

While affected by the rotation

Of a world spinning ‘round its axis point

With the priestly power to anoint

And give absolution for the emptiness I feel

When the break of morning stills my courtroom appeal

I am back in my skin again

Brittle bones and a lust for the end

Which is not yet to be