Sleeping Alone

I had a dream in which I was asleep,

and when I woke the world was much the same.

I rose to greet this strangest near-real day,

and did not think to question all the things

which in this world were slightly different.

The rain still pattered on my window frame,

the postman still delivered the wrong mail.

The homeless still held hats for falling change

and the drunks still leered from pub doorways and

spat and cursed the serving barman’s name

who’d cut them off with sun still in the sky.

I walked on through this place that was not mine,

and realised when I got home to rest

that what was changed and missing was my bed.

It was a bed for one, I was alone.

That moment I awoke in a cold sweat,

to find my own world waiting, dawn breaking

lying in my bed for two, beside you.