I'll always miss dreaming my dreams with you

Marianne Faithfull on YouTube takes me back.
It’s the 70s, green eye shadow colours her lids
and her blonde hair is flipped sweetly back.
Swaying gently, she’ll always miss
dreaming her dreams with you.
Saying, someday she’ll get over you.

Your birthday’s in two days.
Forty.
Did you ever think you’d reach that age?
I imagine you with two kids, a wife,
in the wintry north of Canada.

Takes me back.
The night we celebrated
your twenty-seventh in an Italian restaurant
and had carrot cake with your family after.
The only birthday of yours we celebrated together.
How many since?
I doubt you count, or know any more.

I’ll always miss dreaming my dreams with you.

(Published on African Writing Online)