Visitation

Your spectral presence haunts my slumber from time to time.

Weaving slowly in and out of my cerebral labyrinths, you appear as a shining example of someone whose blemishes I once held dear.

I sense admiration and all our unspoken words quietly unravel in dormancy.

You have maneuvered a complicated route to find me. Don’t you know I would have gladly given you proper directions had you asked?

Or was it I who was guilty of evasion?

I no longer remember.

Sanctimony explodes as stardust bathing us in mutual exoneration.

My movie begins and concludes in seconds, the celluloid film strip exhausting itself as I awaken to unsettled disquiet.

Gratitude overwhelms.

And painful recollections dissipate,

Burning.

Ebbing with the tide.

Drowning.

No more languishing; it seems I have captured something of you.

Don’t ever withdraw from my thoughts.

Remain in my illusions; our only hope for rapprochement.

And let bittersweet evocations transform into absolution.

Dominique Stavropoulos-Williams is a native New Yorker who holds degrees in Illustration and Interior Design. Her poetry has been published in The Dark Sire, Detour Ahead, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Better Than Starbucks, The Big Windows Review, and The Voices Project. Her blog, www.dgsinteriors.blogspot.com focuses on interior design, art and architecture. Dominique is a member of SAG-AFTRA. She lives in East Harlem with her husband and rescue cat.