Conversation with a Dying Woman

I’m sorry
I was so mean to you yesterday
when you came to my bedside

but you were smoking a pipe
and your face
wasn’t your face

so I got scared
and said mean things to you.

Maybe it was all just a dream
but I don’t think so

because I remember
other portions of our conversation
so vividly—

especially the part where I told you
that we are not creatures
with souls

but instead
we’re souls with people
just barely attached

and you said
you loved that idea
and would put it in a poem
someday.