after Sei Shonagon
I swear I love you only
in my dreams, in these
sweet silver tunnels where so often
I have found you.
I would do no thing so untoward
as to love you
in plain sight—
And yet, having risen,
I find your star still guides me,
and feel the pangs of the closed door
as sharp as if you had left.
I wonder now, drinking
in the light of your eyes,
if those nights
were all mine, if somewhere perhaps
your sleep-tight fingers
did not uncurl
for me too.
