Recurring dream of you

Too much else. You stroke
kindly the wavering within
and adorn the air in crimson smoke,
though the cold absorbs completely.

This matters later, during those hours
where the recurring dream of you
wounds my waking
until waking is disagreeable,

and the ticking of my watch
becomes an illness which
I must surely perish of.
No truth is plainer than this.

-r. miller