The First Time I Awoke Beside You

 

The first time I awoke beside you

the dawn was cracking like the pane of ice

on the shore of the Shenandoah, true

and delicate as the new year, and twice

I had to remind myself: yes. The first

time I awoke beside you the whole world

knew what was changed, knew I had searched and searched

and finally found my only self, a pearl

diver emerging from the deep to draw

a breath and only then to feel the treasure

in his fingers, reconfigure all

he’d hoped for yesterday, take in the measure

of his fortune. The first time beside

you the door to life was opening wide.

 

 

© Michael Fleming

Brattleboro, Vermont

December 2009

 

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