a bad dream

I wake up
in the middle of the night

and wonder
if the dream is real.

did that really happen?
I look

out the window, there is no
snow
on the ground.

her car is no longer there.
I reach over
to feel the empty space
beside
me to make sure.

it's warm where there was
once coldness,
a human drift of ice and snow.

I calm myself down.

just a dream
I say to myself. go back to
sleep,

it's just a dream,

her reign of terror
is over.