Death in a Dream

I saw her lying dead,
Calm and collected,
Every hair on her head in place,
Her mock smile teasing the birds
That stared in silence.

The ground was brick red,
The trees a dull green,
But their leaves were tender,
And the sky, cloudless—
Neither white nor dark.

A cry struggled to escape my throat,
But I stifled it.
I don’t know why.
My pain begged to let it out,
But my love held it back,
Like a wound that bleeds in silence.

She lay there like a pear
Fallen ripe from its parent tree,
Uncomplaining,
Unfettered by bonds or duties,
Boundless in grace.

Was it a dream?
Was it real?
My heart still bleeds,
Mute in its agony.

They say life is a dream,
A waiting to wake into death,
Shedding all colors and sounds.
Is life the dream,
Or is it what comes after?
The conundrum remains unsolved—
For the living can’t answer it,
And the dead will not speak.

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