How it Came to Me

All night long I
dreamed I was in a creek, with another, I
couldn't really see. Bright sunshine.
Cattails, reeds, the hot and damp smell of mud, wet and
silty surfaces of rocks under
my fingers, water,
everywhere.

Finally, I asked.
Do I get to keep it?, I said,
And when do we stop hurting each other so much?

Somewhere from over on the bank, in the shade of a willow, she
laughed.

No, she said. You don't get to keep it. This is
not that. This is not that dream. And you'll
never
stop
hurting each other either.

She was quiet, a long time. I waited, so uncertain, in the
water.

At last, her voice, her long sad sigh.

Forgive, she said to
me.

Forgive. Then love.

Wake up now.