I dream I am building
with beach glass –
brown, green and white pieces,
an occasional royal blue.

I glue each piece
to the edge of another.
What I am building is hollow,
so light shows through;

it is wider at the base,
and tapers to a point.

At first I am building
on a tar-stained lot,
then it switches to our lawn,
and I see you
walking toward me, waving
something like a letter.

You don’t ask what I’m making.
And because it’s a dream,
I don’t mind.

We are talking through
the language of things.

•

Sally Bliumis-Dunn’s poems have appeared in The Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-day series, Bellevue Literary Review, From the Fishouse, The Paris Review, PBS NewsHour, PLUME, Poetry London, the NYT, Terrain.org, and The Writer’s Almanac, among others. In 2002, she was a finalist for the Nimrod/Hardman Pablo Neruda Prize. Her two books, Talking Underwater and Second Skin, were published by Wind Publications in 2007 and 2009, respectively.

Photo ©Joanne Warfield