Sabah Srishty Rahman

In my dreams, I hold her—
I kiss her and I treasure her and I marvel.
With her, nothing is cruel about the world,
It could never be.
Not when she can card her fingers through my hair,
When she can laugh,
When she can sing laments into lullabies.
I cannot help loving her,
Not in my dreams nor when I wake.
As dawn births the day,
I falter, if only for a second
And everything has faded,
Years before I could make up my mind.
And Mnemosyne’s muse as she is,
She returns to her rightful place.
A memory, phantasmal.
She remains a music box ballerina,
And when I hear the tune she sang,
Once upon a time,
I can’t remember where I know it from.

image credit: Eternal Sunshine by @ratsandlilies.art found on https://x.com/ratsandlilies/status/1457778354774364171