Oneirataxia

Slipping between

What’s real and what’s a dream

One moment you’re gone from me

The next you’re here

Smiling pleasantly

I know what’s real

Reality is that you’re gone

You’ve been gone so long

I sometimes forget

What you were like when you were here

But then it happens again

I come home and there you are

Making dinner or on the computer

As if nothing has happened

To you at all

I try to tell my friends

Convince my family

I keep slipping so easily

Between the two it’s getting hard

To remember what’s real

It feels to nice

Seeing you again

I just want to hug you

To talk to you

Tell you how I’ve been

But reality sets in once more

You’re not real, I tell you as much

Tell you, “This is just a dream”

To which you reply, “Yes, it is.

“But you can stay if you want.”

I jolt awake

Heart racing

Mind wondering

What could you have meant

When you said I could “stay”?

It’s been years since then

And some days when reality

Hits too heavy, too hard

I think about your offer

And wonder

Should I have taken you up on it?