Requiem

Do you know how it is when one wakes
at night suddenly and asks,
listening to the pounding heart: what more do you want,
insatiable?
                     -Czeslaw Milosz, from “Farewell”

I dreamt I was a ghost
disappointed I had died
when I had so much still to do

there are things that I
could teach you,
could touch you with

but want
only to listen
as you give me your reasons
in my own language

your tongue tripping over
the terms of my body

tangled in confusion
broken-soul stories
no reason to withhold
any                 more

_