Phantom In The Dark Poem by Albert Ahearn

Her droopy eyelids opened in the dark
Like so many lonely mornings before.
She lay unmoving in an antique bed
Half awake, yet to her she wasn’t sure.
She thought (or dreamed) of her husband long dead.
But in this semiconscious state he lives:
Feeling his body warmth emanating
From her left, she turns toward him and smiles.
She extends her arm groping in the dark
For his comforting presence that’s not there.
Startled by this dreamy like emptiness
She awakens and than realizes
That it is the same reoccurring dream.
She turns away and then begins to cry.

Oh god! Let me dream.
To never awaken; to
Never shed a tear.