Reverie

a dream within a dream

I still dream of you,
the only way I can preserve this love,
the only way I can feel you near,
the only way I can help myself.

I still dream of us,
to keep me from unraveling,
to keep my hands from reaching
for what isn't there,
to quiet the part of me
that still believes
I could call you awake.

I still dream of you.
Exhausting as it is.
I still dream of you—
not because it heals,
but because the night without you
is a room with no walls,
and I don't know
how to be that unheld.

~ Zayyad Tahir