Margery’s vision

I wake from a long sleep. Someone has laid fresh sheets.
I look around – no-one is here to watch me,
except, casual as a husband, a man who sits
mantled in purple beside my bed. When he sees
I am fully in the moment he turns
so comforting a look on me that peace
returns. Until now I have seen Him
only in pictures. He says, quietly, Daughter.
I rise and call for my housekeeping keys.

A C Clarke