(Written for a poetry assignment in imagery.)

COMING AWAKE

It was a nice place to be, adrift in dream,
my face nestled into the pillow, believing it to be
the soft hollow of your shoulder.

Mews and purrs, a scratchy cat tongue
on my cheek intrude,
coaxing me into reluctant waking.

I cling to solid images that now shape-shift
into vaporous tendrils
that float through my mind like ghosts.

Reaching out, my hand brushes silky cat fur,
not the expected roughness
of your unshaven chin.

The alarm clock sounds the death knell
of such indulgences
as I allow myself these days:

A now older woman who finds intimacy
in the captured dreams that lodge
in youthful memory cells,

To be safely summoned forth
in the comforting embrace
of darkness.

I really enjoyed this. Thanks for writing beautifully.

nicely done...and welcome

sad when reality shakes us from a slumber where we visited what once was, at least your sheets remained dry....however this was fluid and kept me reading til the very end, which you finished quite nicely....Much enjoyed, and welcome to the forums, hope to read more.

Thanks to you and any other members who are commenting on the poem; and I'm looking forward to returning the favor - what a wonderful idea to create forum space for us writers and lovers of literature. I'm brand new here, so I'm jumping back and forth exploring the site and all that it offers.

Although my poem speaks to those universal feelings of loneliness that I think we all experience from time to time, I didn't want it to be tearful and overly sentimental (that isn't my personality!); however, I did want it to be realistic enough so that readers could tap into some aspect of the wistful feelings for past loves and identify with those emotions.

Doesn't reality just suck sometimes.

Nice write!

By they way, what kind of alarm clock do you have anyway? A large grandfather clock with Westminster Chimes.

Nah, just my little travel alarm. In fact, my cat IS my main alarm clock, as he always tromps on me about 5 minutes before it buzzes!