A Recurring Dream

("Dreaming Gaia", 2020, original encaustic) A Recurring Dream Thirty plus years ago After a decade and half together My first love left me We kept in touch by mail But never met again Except in dreams Over the years in those dreams We slowly overcame the discomfort of our parting In some ways we courted again Reconnected, reconciled Rediscovered and recognized a fondness You could say love, that never dies Eventually I came to dream That all the intervening years Had just been a bad dream (despite how good they’d actually been) And that we’d never actually parted In the dream I’d tell her About this reoccurring dream Sobbing with relief and grief And she’d inevitably take it In stride without emotion But in fact, outside the dream I’ve never been quite sure If I ever really loved her Or just a vision of her A blending of the personal and ideal Into a larger than life archetype A few years ago this old friend Finally died of cancer But we continued to meet Mostly in the same old dream Of our separation being nothing but a dream Or should I say an illusion of time and space To hearts outside of both I wonder if we’ll meet again someday And share stories of our adventures And figure that’s what this dream is Figuratively and literally Our never ending story (9/10/24)