In Dreams Where You Exist

By TAMARA FAYE MANINGO

I forget how to feel
when I have dreams
about you,
person who
has drifted off someplace,
where souls are all that is true.

It’s bittersweet,
but more sweet
than it is bitter,
because although
seeing you hurts,
to me, seeing you is all
that could matter.

If eyes could conjure tears
when one is sound asleep,
no doubt, mine would do so
every time you
are what my dreams have to keep;
and if bodies could mimic
the stillness of rocks and boulders,
mine would find it easy
in dreams where your arms
are wrapped around my shoulders.

When someone asks me
why I fancy sleeping a lot,
I’d probably giggle at the fact
that you’re the only answer
my soul has got.

Then I’d get sad
as the thought of you
crosses my mind.

Afterwards, I’d feel empty,
because emptiness
was the only thing you left me
when I got left behind.

But still,
if I were to choose
which dreams to play on repeat
I’d always end up choosing
the ones that had you
in a heartbeat,
because despite the bitterness
that comes with each dream
that has you in it,
the hardest part,
I have to admit,
will always be
having to wake up to
a reality where
I am without you.

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AUTHOR’S BIO

Tamara Faye Maningo studies medicine and currently lives in Cebu, Philippines. She begins her poems as random words that rhyme or with a phrase that catches her attention. It starts small but after seeing which pieces fit and which ones don’t, it grows, and changes, and finally, it becomes what it’s supposed to be. Read her other poem here.