Cambridge Book Review

[Issue #16, Spring 2009]

The Dreamer

Sarah Busse

We sailed around the world.
We sailed to land in Rome --
Now why would a pagan like me
Harbor a dream of Rome?

The next time it was your house.
(Again it was us two.)
And all the songbirds maimed --
I don't remember more.

If I could have run away,
If I could have run, I'd run.
But I couldn't, no, I couldn't --
In a dream you never can.

A daughter's cry awoke me,
Another call to love.
And as I tried to answer her
My legs still wouldn't move.

If I could have run to her
If I could have run, I'd run
But I couldn't, and I cannot --
From a dream you never can.

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Sarah Busse has published poems in various journals and magazines, including most recently the magazine Poet Lore, the broadzine Arbor Vitae, and the online journal, Mezzo Cammin. The co-editor of the Wisconsin poetry magazine Free Verse, she lives with her husband and two children in Madison, Wisconsin. You can find her online at bookthatpoet.com.
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