Photograph by Anna Evans Copyright 2005

In Dreams
For Lara

Dear Lara, Do you know Greta still dreams
about you? I don't, which is fine. Your life,
your death reminded me of what is divine:

daily life. Like the pictures that litter my shelves.
Hundreds. All framed. Yet only two of you,
dear Lara. Do you know: Greta still dreams

about you. It worries me. You, dead eight years.
I listen to her dreams, but want to scream,
Let go this death! Remind me, what is divine?

The living are divine! If I did say that and
you, alive, heard it, you would laugh,
Lara. You know Greta. She dreams

big dreams and tries to love them into truth,
which is why, I think, she holds so tightly to
you as if rewinding death, setting back time.

Yet, we know, time only marches forward;
there will be no more pictures snapped of you.
Dear Lara, do you know Greta still dreams
your death. Remind me, again, what is divine?



Julie R. Enszer is a writer and lesbian activist living in Maryland. She has previously been published in Iris: A Journal About Women, Room of One's Own, Long Shot, the Web Del Sol Review, and the Harrington Lesbian Fiction Quarterly. Her work is forthcoming in Poetica and Sunspinner. Visit Julie's Website.



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