Not turning the light on
As I wake in the dark,
the neighbour’s son returns with his girlfriend
before spending what’s left of the night in her arms.
I’ve not forgotten teenage insomnia, day-dreaming words
into poems not daring to switch on a light to write them
but silently reciting them to memory.
It’s your absence that keeps me awake now
and I still don’t turn the light on. I like the dark:
light shows dust gathering, brings obligations.
In the dark, I can imagine the bedroom door open.
(previously published in Under the Radar)
Emma Lee’s Ghosts in the Desert is published by Indigo Dreams Publishing available here. She blogs at emmalee1.wordpress.com and reviews for Sabotage Reviews, The Journal and London Grip.
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