The Visit

by Sharon Chmielarz

The dreamer, wakened by the sound

of bells, a hundred bells of trembling,

a happy, joyous bubbling, turning

the night room to blue. The dreamer,

unable to move, to speak. Her list of

questions silenced by her lover's

loneliness for body, for earth time,

earth's axis, its sessions of light.

Who knows

what he had to give

to return to the fortress again,       

their bed in the universe.

Did he expect her not to be frightened

by his strange appearance?

The Oh, the Ah of it?  

Only at first she was.