Coincidence

For Mildred Nash

Coincidence.  Perhaps coincidence

Explains it all.  Why look far out, in deep

For mystical solutions to make sense

Of how a dream disturbed more than my sleep—

A dream in which you sat bolt upright on

A Windsor chair and wore a long blue dress

(Ornamented with a white chiffon)

And on your visage bore a dark distress

And said your dog was dead?  When I awoke,

I thought the dream an impetus to phone,

And when I did, the first words that you spoke,

Through sobs, were that your cat had died.  Your tone

Was as it had been in my dream, which plain

Coincidence tries too hard to explain.

David Berman

© David Berman.  Reprinted by permission of the author.