The Night I Dreamed of Dolphins

by Marianne Tefft

I knew you were coming
The night I dreamed of dolphins
Walking with your father
Beneath moonlit veils of Spanish moss
So unlike the icy drapes
That cascade from northern roofs
I had gazed with joy and awe
So many years before
As those sleek coursers
Sine-curved up the Broad River
That night I stood on boulders
Staring into a sea the color of pecans
From a depth where even my night-mind
Knew no air-breather could ascend
I watched a dolphin fly toward the surface
Mesmerized by that determined arrow
I stared as if into a hand-mirror
When the dolphin stood tall on his silver flukes
Held me for an indelible instant
In the full sunshine of his gentle smile
Then bent his strong neck
And kissed me on the cheek
Un-pleating my body in one move
I sat up
Sure like tropical dawn
That bursts from dream to daylight
And I knew as I have never known anything
Before or since
You were coming
The night I dreamed of dolphins