Epiphany

Day 6: "take inspiration from Yentl van Stokkum’s poem, “It’s the Warmest Summer on Record Babe,” which blends casual, almost blasé phrasing with surreal events like getting advice from a bumblebee. In your poem today, try writing with a breezy, conversational tone, while including at least one thing that could only happen in a dream."

I've chosen to write about a dream I had a few weeks ago.  It didn't happen exactly like this,  but that is what poetic licence is all about.  

Epiphany 

You know, last night was one one those nights

You don't expect.  You go to bed as usual, 

All the ritual stuff of brushing your teeth

For the regulation two minutes, the last minute wee,

The diary pause to capture important moments from the day,

The reading of the latest novel to ease your brain into sleep, 

The last, last minute wee.  So far, so usual.

But sometime between midnight and the inevitable 3am wake up,

I had an epiphany.  

                                     All the men I'd ever known -

No, not in that way, well, some of them -

Came up to me one by one, their features frozen

At the age they were when last we parted,

And each one asking if they knew me. Of course,

I know I've aged. My wrinkles and grey hair,

My walking stick, the whole performance of standing;

But somehow I knew that's not what they meant.

For each one I'd been a different me, flexing my personality 

To fit, this way for one, that way for another: art lover,

Environmental campaigner, deep thinker, wife and mother,

Carefree, no-strings-attached empassioned lover.

I bid them all farewell, accepting they had to go

Back to the realm of memory. 

Waking in the dark of night I curled around your warmth,

Murmured soft reassurance to your sleepy "You OK?" 

Listened to your breath returning to its nighttime rhythm,

Knowing with you I'm a messy blend of all those things, and more.  

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