Free Verse Poem
I close my eyes
and the world fades-
slow, soft, silver.
There you are,
waiting in the dark
like you always are.
It feels more than real,
like a life I lived
in another skin,
where my soul knows yours
without question.
I slip into sleep
even when I’m not tired-
just to reach you,
just to feel your hands
claim my hips
like you’re keeping me
from waking.
And maybe you are.
Maybe that version of you
knows I don’t want to leave.
Knows I’d rather drown in dreams
than live without you
in the daylight.
Part of me shatters
under the thought
that maybe you do the same-
that somewhere,
you close your eyes,
and we meet in the world
between our dreams and reality.
I know it’s not real.
But I choose the lie.
Gladly.
And when I wake,
you haunt me.
Your touch lingers like smoke,
your name still echoing
from the hollow of my throat.
I taste you in the silence.
I wear your absence
like bruises under my skin.
Sleep has become my sanctuary,
a cathedral of shadows
where I kneel before the ghost of you-
begging the night
to let me stay,
to never allow me to wake.
The Altar 