Once - Poem by Conor Dowd

Once,
in the deep of a summer night,
in the heat of a summer night,
I lay beside you as you slept
and listened to you breathe.

You always faced away
toward the pictures on the wall,
your family and your friends,
you always faced away.

A sleeping rearrangement
and you shift upon your back,
a hand across your brow
as though an artist was beside us.

I scan your face in sleep
and feel a stranger,
feel an enemy intruder
in your private space...

because your face just told me more
than it ever did awake,
the curve of your cheek reveals
more than if you'd speak,
your sleep is like a language to me -
a polygraph release.

And the landscape of your face
was always there to read
but if I'd only understood
then my eyes could look and see.

Soon dawn crept to your window
but by then I was asleep
and you were watching me.