As When...

As when the dream you can’t remember, no,

Not even the faintest detail of plot, though

You do recall how it made you feel, which

Is something you have no words for, as when

They ask you how you’re doing and you have to say

Fine because in fact there are no words for how

You are feeling because it is something you’ve never felt

Before, as when that unremembered dream

Determines the mood of your entire day like a drone

Note played against the elaborate melody so the melody

No matter how hard it presses or furious it runs

Or elaborately it dances cannot rise into cheerfulness,

So now among the marigolds, zinnias, nasturtiums,

Delphiniums of your precious garden you recall the last time you saw her

And she told you she was giving up—no, it wasn’t working

And there was no more you could do, and whatever

You might say would only extend the gulf you still thought with time

Might not be permanent. But there it was.

And here you are, among these oh-so-lovely flowers

Rusted along the edges where the blades of the petals

Encounter nothing but the emptiness of air.