I and I

In my last dream before waking I meet a version of myself from an alternate universe. We greet each other cautiously. There’s a slight class difference: while I flipped burgers at the diner my alter-ego went to graduate school & now teaches cultural studies at the university. He takes me back to his apartment, which he shares with two housemates & a dozen cats. I watch in wonder as he gives a good-night kiss to a woman black as coffee. I gave up poetry years ago, he says. He asks what I’ve done to make my beard turn white.