"Listening For Her"

Listening For Her

In my sleep I listen for the sound of you

While my dreams stretch my mind back to my adolescence

Before you came,

But when I was beginning to wonder who you might be.

On the waves of softly waking and falling back into sleep

I gently pat your father’s arm, coaxing him out of his snoring place,

And I fight to find my own rest again.

But still I listen for you.

Even sunk back into this or that old love affair,

The swirling images of past hurts and distant voices,

And raw unearthed memories of wanting and losing,

My ears stay a little awake. And

Your breathing,

A turn of your head,

Or a sleepy whimper in your own dreams

Pulls me back to now,

Where I am only yours and you are mine.

Who cares about the unsettledness of the past

When the present is full of your soft face,

The smell of you,

Your tiny hands,

And the awakening of my whole life

Every time you awaken?

© 2010