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.