The Gift

Once more in one of those dreams

where nothing is quite as it was

though enough to draw tears, just

off pitch, feverish, my dream-self:

like a room we once knew so well

years ago. The pink dressing gown

you’d sprinkled with rose oil, ready

for Netflix. Last night before bed

I must have caught a glimpse, as it

lay creased in the bedding box, a moth

crawling on the belt. In the dream

it slipped, as it would, and my palm

seemed to find itself on the perfect

cleft round your back, you giving

me a look as if to say, sorry, my body

is gone, we know, though this is the least

I can give.

Patrick Wright’s poems have appeared in Poetry Ireland Review, The North, Gutter, Poetry Salzburg, Poetry Wales, and The London Magazine. His debut full-length collection, Full Sight of Her, was published in 2020 by Eyewear. His second collection, Exit Strategy, is scheduled for publication by Broken Sleep in 2025.