Marry Me

a senryu sequence

when I come late to bed

I move your leg flung over my side—

that warm gate

nights you’re not here

I inch toward the middle

of this boat, balancing

when I turn over in sleep

you turn, I turn, you turn,

I turn, you

some nights you tug the edge

of my pillow under your cheek,

look in my dream

pulling the white sheet

over your bare shoulder

I marry you again

Poem copyright © 2000 by Veronica Patterson, whose most recent book of poetry is This Is the Strange Part, Pudding House Publications, 2002. Poem reprinted from Swan, What Shores?, New York University Press, 2000, by permission of Veronica Patterson and New York University Press.