Recurring dream invades my sleep for weeks

Womans silhouette in a window seen

Head bowed in sorrow it would seem

Outside the window a dusty night time scene

Shadowy tree limbs shrouded in mist

Dew covered grass cast a dull glow

Even the stars have a tarnished gleam

She sits still in her high backed chair as I enter the room

Quietly I stand in the gloom

At her feet torn pages from a book

Soft sob

Loud rip

Another torn page flutters

It drifts and scatters at her feet

Like autumn leaves falling from the trees

Steps light as I slide around the room

Rip, sob, scatter, rip, sob, scatter the pile gets bigger

Something familiar in her silhouette

Crescent of moonlight glides across the window

Strangled gasp from my throat

She is the shade of me how can this be

Knees give way

Landing on all those torn sheets

My fingers sift through them

They glitter like stardust in my hands

Here a name, there's a picture

Here's another life advent

Old dreams 

Old wishes

Old loves

Old pains

Pages from my past

Why this book is the picture book of my life

Harsh snap

Soft thump

Landing at my knees

Picking it up all the pages blank

Staring into a face so like my own

A million questions on my lips

She leans forward

She drops a small key 

"Its time, child, to write a new life"

"This time the beginning and the ending is left up to you" 

Sun rose she began to fade away

Stirring in my bed

What a dream I thought

But in my hand lay a small key and a dusty book

First page read, chapter one, the rest blank