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.
