Two Poems by Milton P. Ehrlich

My Departed Wife Pays a Visit in a Hypnagogic Hallucination

I feel her reaching out
to me with her warm
silken hands over mine.
She thaws out the ice
of my frozen knuckles.
I watch her cuddle up
to me and know she
will always be absent
but amazingly present
at my side to surround
me with a fathomless love
that will surely endure for
as long as we are attached
in the here and now and
in the world hereafter.

Unforgettable You

You are in my every breath, reminding me
my heart can’t beat without you.
Even though I taught kids how to do
the dead man’s float and learn how to swim,
you showed me how I shouldn’t be treading water,
and just enjoy swimming like a fish.
Demonstrating how to do a cannonball,
you landed with a memorable, Kerploosh!
Living with a smile on your face,
you taught me how to smile, never allowing
any hint of darkness to invade your joyful affirmation of life.
I was lucky you shared the sunlight of sheer delight with me.

Milton P. Ehrlich, Ph.D. is a 90-year-old psychologist and a veteran of the Korean War. He has published many poems in periodicals such as the London Grip, Arc Poetry Magazine, Descant Literary Magazine, Wisconsin Review, Red Wheelbarrow, Christian Science Monitor, and the New York Times.