In conversation with Mark Strand

They are gone,
your friends too.
Now on this coldest of nights
you will turn in your sleep
dream back to the beginning.

It was something you said.
It was something you did.
No matter –
you live in a house with paper walls,
they will collapse if you move too fast.

What if you can recreate the beginning?
If they all return tomorrow will you burst into bloom?
Perhaps everything will turn out right.
Though I believe you will wake from your dream
to find the sun has yet to bring an end to the night.