Dad once said he had a recurring dream
where he saw a photograph of himself
in a Civil War soldier’s uniform. 

He never told me it was blue or gray.
Maybe combat paints everyone the same
in the recurring dream dad used to have. 

Though he grew up south of the Mason-Dixon,
the color did not seem to matter
of the Civil War soldier’s uniform.

It could be he wrestled with his choice 
to leave Virginia and settle in the North; 
he might have said that of his recurring dream, 
 
the subconscious aware of conflict within. 
He mused it revealed a previous life, 
this image of a soldier's uniform:

a life his choice to leave home had ended,
with a rebirth of sorts coming after. 
Dad once said he often had a dream
about a Civil War soldier’s uniform.