14 Mornings

Waking each day

The strangest thing. For the last 14 days I have awoken 
lying next to someone I don’t know, have never seen nor spoken
to before. But we are in a familial bed, and are together, familiar
with each other. I am called honey, sweetie, sugar, darling, William (not my name)

Some mornings at the foot of the bed lies an unrecognisable dog,
a different breed each time, but always gentle and kind to me because
I am their owner. At other times, children screaming in the room next door
flood in with a roar, I am called, parent, da, father, pa, George (not my name)

There are times when the feeling is intense - warmth, love, caring with affection.
At other times antagonistic, the distinct feeling we are waging a war,
fighting over land which has already been lost, surrendered, an invasion.
Is it my task to broker some truce, peace pact, reconciliation?

But today it was you, the one I recognise, laying next to me as I came to. 
It was as if I was waking from a dream that I was desperately happy not be true.

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Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York, November 2019. Nikon d750

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