Last Night I Dreamed Of You

You've been gone
for so long
that I dreamed
that you were dead

You were gone for
so long
that I had to
have you buried
deep into a very
hard and frozen
place
(Though
no tombstone
yet stands
to mark your
resting space)

Not knowing how
to behave
what piece of us
was I srtill trying
to save?

In my dream
I once again heard
your voice unchanged
from the grave
How could that be
I wondered
(was I deranged?)

Are you a ghost
or some poor player
still strutting across my
mind's empty stage?

For I have
never truly learned
how to forgive and forget
or how to put out
the still burning embers
of my rage

jhmarkowitz
Philadelphia, Pa. 2013