Pearl in the Dark

Last night, in my dreams,

He came when I called.

The Invisible One found me in the dark.

Wearing a suit as black as moonless night

He reached toward me holding a handful of pearls.

Across a great distance and through eons,

We fell into an ephemeral embrace.

The dreamworld is also the underworld.

An ancestress sat in the corner at her loom

Weaving the filament of time.

One by one she took pearls from his hand.

And threaded them into a net of stars.

A pearl slipped from her fingers and fell to the floor,

Breaking my slumber.

Birdsong and sunbeams streamed in.

The dark dissolved.

I rose and spent the morning between worlds.

Outdoors I stepped barefoot onto dew damp grass.

And there, at my feet,

I found a pearl.

Catherine Brooks, 2022