Is there a way to wake up?

​(Jena Osman)

I was supposed to know them, the couple
you named, alerting me they’d gone missing.
(This dream dimmed what all my dreams dim: trouble.
We never bloomed, but we keep dehiscing.)
I was at work, in a meeting, a small,
hot, crowded room. You broke in, insisted
I help. (Though we were speaking not at all.
We never stood, never fell, just listed.)
I was not me, nor you you. (This the dream
lifted from my life: what feels fraught is fraught.
And this: I saw your halt and raised you lame.)
By us, the lost, are the missing best sought,
so we left together to look for them,
the couple I should have known but did not.

H. L. Hix teaches in the philosophy department and the creative writing MFA program at the University of Wyoming. His recent books include a poetry collection, I’m Here to Learn to Dream in Your Language (Etruscan Press, 2015), and an art/poetry anthology, Ley Lines (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2014). His website is www.hlhix.com.This poem is part of a sequence titled “Frequently Asked Questions” that will be part of a book called Rain Inscription, scheduled for 2017 publication.
*Photo courtesy of Anita Hart.
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