Cotton Pajamas

Mystical poem written 4-28-25. Hymn To Aphrodite 4.

1.
“Lay down, my dear,
You always were such a deep sleeper”,
I drip golden like honey down the path,
Between one door and another

“Remember, my love,
The shadows are never out of reach”,
She says this to me calmly,
As if I were not coming unthreaded

“If you can just remember,
Then I will let you wake up”,
My rough wool blanket pulled tight,
Volumes still unwritten and unsung

My robes are cotton pajamas,
Vestments of a dreaming priestess,
Of anxious strivings,
And childhood aspirations

2.
If I can only begin to reach up to You,
If I can only begin to smell the roses,
If I can only come ever so close,
To touching Your cheek

Then I might be able to finally,
Crawl out of the cold, warm,
Embracing, lonely shadows,
Cast by my far-away forever

That person that,
I only sort of was,
But with whom,
I am forever trapped

Every time I wake up,
I feel that phantom pain,
Every time I lose sight of You,
I am haunted

3.
I will not let You be forgotten,
Even if I am left alone and dry,
Thirsting for Your lustral waters,
In the Desert Of The Real

I will puzzle out Your mysteries,
I will squint out a glimpse of You,
Against all odds,
Against the grain

I will read Your messages,
Rolled up and bound into a bottle,
And tossed up onto the war-torn shores,
Of this contested reality 

I am Yours, my Beloved,
My Beautiful, my Heavenly,
You have laid Your hands upon me,
And made me real