Library Visit: A Dream

He’s familiar somehow, though taller here in this dreamspace, or maybe he’s more than one — some midnight rendering of them or Him —

but whatever he is, we’re at the library — a colonnade and chandeliers, passing spines and shelves

talking about books in a rambling conversation like you have with that person who so easily takes up the space next to you

remember?

I think I know him and love him — I must — because when he leans in to kiss me I oblige

and we keep walking, out the door and through town past nighttime store fronts

until I wake up and wonder if I should perhaps entertain the idea of a Him again

or if these midnight visits are comfort and substance enough for the ten or twenty bit of road left ahead.

Poem ©2023, Jen Payne. Image by Merve. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.