SUDDENLY

​Suddenly, in the dark before morning,
I awoke hearing you call my name
And knew expressed in that one word
Love beyond anything I could deserve,
Though by my side you slept in breathing calm.


Then as the voice from dream faded
I wondered if in years to come
One might rise from sleep in this same room
Hearing your gentle ghost call,
We both by then from this world gone,


Our little world scattered among later lives,
Your love and my unworthiness unknown;
While that same night in  torment I might long
To hear, just once, your ghostly love call down
One cooling drop upon my parching tongue.




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