By Erica Naone (LadyFebruary@yahoo.com)
Date: 5 June 1999

In the Shadows of Your Dreams

Waking up beside you in the shadows of your dreams,
The parts of me not touching you shiver and I slip
Back into the covers, thinking you'll know me by now and
Maybe you'll kiss my shoulder.  I need that.
I don't know what will become of me once I hit the lonely places
Where you will be the only family I have.

Every morning when you wake, you grasp at me and
Through the air conditioner's hum I whisper where I was
In the night.  Sometimes the things I saw make me cry,
Like the night I saw my best friend gleaming with a million eyes
And I clapped my hands to my ears and knew no more sounds.
My dreams never frighten you as much as searchlights in the sky
Frightened you when you were a child.

Waking up beside you in the shadows of your dreams,
My throat still harsh from last night's cigarette.
I clear it, softly, so you stay asleep.
The sun reflects your pale flesh into my eyes.
I know your mind: you are free of all my worst delusions.
You never smoke with me, and when I sit alone in moonlight
Pulling on black cigarettes, I offer my lungs up to the darkness
And hope you never leave.