waking from dreamlessness
I woke up alone to squirrels
bickering around & around the tree
in the front yard, light seeping
through cracked mini blinds & my beard
wet from sleep slobber & you had
already left your shadow on the cold
pillow, your underwear in the pile
behind the door, toothpaste spit dried
on the toilet bowl rim & the coffee
still warm, not fresh, still drinkable
like your lips when we first met
over thirty years before & the sun
was there, too, then, & the squirrels
& the bickering a dull thrumming
soundtrack not yet swelling to
crescendo through our lives