a poem from the book Sandstorms & Mirages

Dreams

He appears in my dreams

and talks to me;

but just when I extend

my hands to grab him

and put him back in

my womb,

I wake up.

He is not always smiling.

The other night

he was pulling my nightgown.

As he did when a child.

Once he got my attention,

he showed me his little friend:

he held the skinny boy

by an empty sleeve.

An endless bandage rolling out

of the kid’s head was their path of

blood red bricks.

When the kid noticed

my blue eyes,

they both ran away.

I called them and called them

until I lost my voice,

then I woke up.

At my birthday

he brought me his medals,

placed them by my pillow.

I could tell he had spent

hours shining them.

Then he sat at my vanity table

shinning his boots.

2 Cecilia Bravo-Mittmann

Singing me a Marine’s cadence,

he put me to sleep.

Snow is falling now

at the cemetery

I can see his grave

from my window.

Snows whites out shapes

and memories-

Winter has arrived to stay.

Sandstorms & Mirages 3