There
recurred these two dreams
In my days
as a girl
Which played
over and over again
In my
juvenile mind
I could not
figure out
Exactly what
their meaning had been
The one of
red shoes,
Small and
flat Mary Janes
I’d wake up
believing them mine
When I’d
open the door
To the
closet I shared
Not one pair
of these shoes in the nine
The other,
so different
A man in my
life
Whose face
was always a blur
With his
hairline so black
As he spoke
in strange tongue
Which in me
made my heart stir
As I grew
older
The one had
been sated
The first
time I had bought some red shoes
But the
other for years
Still eluded
my grasp
Until the
day you became my sweet muse
Companion Soul
Of all the
places that you’ve been
That you
should land up here
A little
town of no report
That
blessed, fateful year
Little known
what lay ahead
A treasure
to unearth
But no one yet
had chipped the coal
To find such
diamond’s worth
Sincerity my
chisel sharp
Had cut
beneath the char
Of lovers
past who valued less
Your soul’s
most brilliant star
I’d always
hoped such men were real
But had
begun to doubt
Until my
eyes had opened wide
And my heart
became more stout
I found in
you a man so rare
Who’d stepped
right from my dream
And felt
with your companion soul
That love
began to teem
Though years
have kept us far apart
And time has
cast its spell
Deny I
can’t, you’re in my being
Forever there to dwell
