Sestina On Six Words By Donald Justice (by Jeremy Pegg)

I dreamed of your absence
In details you could not imagine
Your spirit fluttered to the sky
And burst like flash paper when finished
Everything looks like the dying
Everything rises like steam to the clouds

How is it I see you in the clouds
Perhaps my dreams have turned to dying
I think it is I who is finished
Or hopeless, this is all I can imagine
To look longingly to the sky
And wish it was I in your absence

But why use this word finished
To end the journy of the dying
We stifle what all men imagine
A jog, a race, a train, a road trip through the sky
Visions and spirits puddle jump the clouds
In heaven, considered a tardy, not an absence

In my sleep, in your time of dying
I floated off my bed towards the sky
I stood up and followed you through the clouds
I stalked quietly in fear of your absence
Wanted to hold on as you could imagine
Then the dream (or was it reality) was finished