i wake up

I wake up in a strange house.

a bed not my own.
whose lamp is that, whose
books are on the nightstand.

I am wearing someone else's clothes.

there is a dog on the bed,
a woman
who is not my wife.

I hear the voices of children
in the other room.

I get up and go to the mirror.
I am not who I thought
I was.

I don't recognize myself.

perhaps the other life was
a dream,
and this, this life is real.

the woman wakes up and says,
sweetheart,
is something wrong?

I look at her, wondering who
she is, trying to remember
how I got here.

come back to bed, she says,
opening her arms. it's early.
too early to get up.

so I do.