Poem ~ All that matters

Last night I dreamt myself into a poetry reading

before an audience of hundreds – outdoors,

sunshine, cheers and applause before 

I’d read a single word and a quickening 

around my heart that carried both 

anxiety and excitement as I leafed through 

the books in my hands trying to find 

the marked pages, the poems I’d already chosen

but knowing at the same time all that mattered

now would be the choices I'd make in that moment

and the next. And I looked up. I smiled. I spoke.