17 tcf.org.uk COMPASSION | YOUR POEMS & STORIES I see you Standing by the tree With the ivy growing around its trunk Like veins I hear you Laughing by the wood den Built from large twigs Propped up against each other I smell you in the wind that blows Through the almost-bare branches And I feel your energy In the dried leaves that Stir around my feet Or fall like rain I taste you In traces of soil in the air And the fresh snow The cemetery lies At the entrance to the forest But I know you’ve escaped it And made your way into the wild Along the path I’m forced to walk by Lisa Vercelli in memory of Jamie. "A hundred and twenty months. Ten years. An outrageous survival. Each night angry, uncharitable. Sleep. No sleep. Dreams. No dreams. The death of so many. Dreams. In my dreams, I plead with you. Please stay, Be’ta. We’ll find a way. Don’t give up yet. Don’t go away. Come here. Sit with me. Tell me what I need to know. Tell me what hurts you so. Tell me how I can make it go. I could guess when you were hungry, thirsty. To your amused annoyance, even when you wanted to pee. I just knew. I don’t know how. But this one I did not see coming. I couldn’t. I don’t know how. I am sorry. I had no map. I was lost in the fast lane. In my dreams, our dark sides are friends. Together they figure it out, Have a laugh, make it all okay. In my dreams, we breathe together nice and slow, As if singing a joyful melody. We hold hands and dance in our kitchen Crying on each other’s shoulders, secretly. From the fridge, I pull out a white china bowl Filled with pomegranate seeds, Rubies, I harvested earlier in the day. Please stay, my Jaan. I would say. In my dreams, through my furious longing I can momentarily understand. Your pain, your silence. I can understand why you had to go. Like a boat sailing into a pink new morn, I must release you. I must stay. I must let you be on your way. In my dreams." Nights-3654 by Sangeeta Mahajan
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