Poetry, Decembering

Absence

Last thing at night

as the day unravels its tangles

allowing a drifting between

wakefulness and clouded sleep,

it’s the memory in the scent

of your hair on the pillow

that lingers on.

And at waking,

first thing in the morning,

warm and dream-drowsy,

I imagine that you’re there

beside me and delay the

moment of remembering

that you are not.