upstate medical university center for bioethics and humanities

Volume 1, 2001

Morphine Dreams

Robertina K. Szolarova

Lightly they drift
around me
Words in violet hues
and restless shapes
with silver edges
descending on the sheets
And never have I seen
sounds like these
fireflies with antique voices
melt through my frozen layers
Each glowing ember
sinks
into what is left of me
Ignites a slow cold burning
somewhere in the center
of what is left to me
And nothing
not a thing
remains untold
All these pages
are read
and my hands have folded them
into the shapes of birds
to feed the searching flames
to see once more
the dance of wings upon the wall

Return to Table of Contents, Volume 1, 2001.