Waking // Missing

Jacqueline Meldrum

"/" indicates a line break.

I miss you every night when you fall asleep, my dear./It is a sweet and dreadful thing.

My dreams are full of you:/Full of/Holding your body close to mine under blankets like a wood fire,/Your facial features becoming a shining beacon of comfort in a pitch-black room,/The moon glowing against your skin./Still,/The memory of you fades and I/Drift into uneasier sleep.

When I wake I move like water, soft and malleable for you./I cannot shape myself into anything but yours,/Cannot rest soundly without you,/Cannot keep my heart inside my chest because/It runs back into your arms at every chance,/My love./I wish you would come home so it could stop running so far.

I miss you every morning when I wake up, my dear./It is a sweet but difficult thing./My dreams are full to bursting, miniature worlds all made up of you,/All bubbling over until they pop against the edges of the daylight./Leaving me alone in empty sheets.

I can take comfort knowing that someday the daylight will only bring me closer to you lying beside me.

That thought is much easier to bear.