She sleeps as the moonlight illuminates her bed,
Her dog asleep at her side.
And in her dream,
He is walking hand in hand with her, both blonde as mistaken siblings,
Along the misty Rhode Island shore,
Her place of peace, a place she longed to show him.
And through her soft overgrown bangs blowing across her blue eyes,
She faces him and gently cups her hands on his face,
She looks into his eyes, although he will not look into hers.
She calmly says,
I believe I am the one woman you'd never need to fear.
She doesn't try to convince him any further.
She understands his resistance, understands his fears, his silence.
She accepts all that as a part of who he is.
It is unspoken, where they both belong in their separate worlds.
As she never asked for him either.
She gives him the most genuine and sincere smile.
Taking his hand in hers again and together they continue to walk,
Barefoot in the warm sand.
And her dream is over,
She awakens in the moonlight, still illuminating her bed,
A single tear falls onto her pillow.
Because she forgot to tell him,
She doesn't know how to let him go.
(January 2008)
Cathleen Hodgkinson
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/his-resistance-of-her/
