Selected Poetry from Despy Boutris

Photo Source: Pxhere

DREAMING

It was news to me—that clichés

are clichés because there’s some truth

to them. People always say stuff

about dreams—how they matter,

how they’re better than reality,

and apparently they’re right. I know

because I’m desperate for my dreams

to come true: for you to come home

from your visit with family, a visit

lasting longer than I can easily count.

Here, in this tiny youless town,

I dream here come morning, seeing

the way the early light turns my wall

orange, the spider constructing

its cobweb in the room’s right crook.

I dream you cross the road

with a mutt in tow and run smack

into me. In dreams we find each other.

I dream you press your chest

into my spine. I dream you with me.

Despy Boutris's writing has been published or is forthcoming in Copper Nickel, Colorado Review, American Poetry Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Journal, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. Currently, she teaches at the University of Houston and serves as Poetry Editor for Gulf Coast, Guest Editor for Palette Poetry and Frontier, and Editor-in-Chief of The West Review.