The Mattress

I have been writing stories for years
But now I am in love and all my thoughts feel like poetry.
I know how corny that sounds, but it is also true.

Six years ago, a single woman, I bought a new mattress;
I splurged, it was quite an investment.
For months I luxuriated sleeping right smack in the middle.
I was deliriously happy as the princess of my own realm.

But one day I woke with a thought of the future.
Someday, with any luck at all, I would share my kingdom with a fellow.
I suddenly realized I did not want a mattress with a selfish dent in the middle.
And thus began my semi-annual routine of turning and flipping my mattress, and,
even more amusing, intending to sleep on the outside edge, holding space,
imagining that my prince was already occupying the other side of the bed.

I dozed. I waited.

Not knowing what his response would be,
I am not sure why I told my lover this story a few weeks ago.
But he just chuckled and pulled me close,
“You silly girl, I dreamt of rolling into you, right here, in the middle.”

Maybe this isn’t a poem.
Maybe it is just short sentences, each given their own line.
It seems there is a rhythm, with very little rhyme.
Yet my life, with each breath, now is filled with so much more ….
the passion of a poem infused with grace and magic.

* annette