As night falls, the sun
serenades my soul –
beauty wraps my heart
in somnolent ecstacy
paints my mood
with shades of love
Reality out of focus
imagination floats, full sail
into a dreamy mist
delightful course
a symphony of hues
coaxing welcome slumber.
(Image my own)
The serpent alerted me
boa sized terror disrupting sleep
I tried to push it back
but the beast insisted
“Keep driving forward, woman
I am at your side”
It came again
infiltrating my slumber
with a wide mouthed warning –
“I could consume you,
you better be ready”
Of course, I looked away.
It was a tiger next,
whose force, unmistakeable
sat upon my legs
rendering me inert
“You will pay attention”
he warned. No argument there
But how am to decipher
these nightly messages
the power of such beings
infiltrating my waking moments
am I going mad?
It would be the wolf
whose presence caught me
mid-flight, awake while dreaming
that startled me the most
“No time”, he said, “the moment is now”
And I awoke with a shudder
heart drumming an anxious tempo
and that’s when the letter arrived
telling me that we were finished
flesh of my flesh
no longer forgiving
and then the dog died
and I know that things come in threes
and the threads of my heart
barely holding on
can’t handle anything else
and my mind burns with questions
If only I’d paid attention
when that first snake appeared.
(Inspired by dreams. My art)
Watching the man wander
between home and industry,
the apron of his trade firmly fixed,
a sparkle of grit in his coiffed beard
The children, too, find joy
in his space, running between
house and workshop,
dog bounding at their feet
proudly on guard.
An outsider
and sink bound
she moves by rote
tea towel slung over shoulder
maintains a distance –
the dream is not hers.
She waits
weights
pretends
denies
Is losing her edges
and the parameters he sets
keep shifting, and
she is falling short
and the children, now hungry
tug on her apron for acknowledgment –
their father having taught them well —
she lives to meet their needs.
What’s for supper? they whine,
already preparing to grouse:
I don’t like that!
You liked it last week, she’ll reply
Weary, she feels herself fading
A meal on the table
and the man drags his feet –
would not award her respect
to appear on time
She’ll abide the disarray
while counting to herself
the minutes till this is over
and the children are in bed
and the man has returned to work
and nothingness is hers…
The numbness of lacking a dream.
(Art my own)
Was it neglect
that rendered us
so useless?
joints collapsing,
minds scattering
movement minimal…
That which we no longer tend to
loses lustre – less profit to reap
When we store our dreams in corners –
time usurping promises,
visions asleep –
the fallout is too steep
Cherishment is what is needed
for self, for hopes, for all life.
(Image my own)
Once believed
that thought
held magic
that God decides –
worth and merit
in limbo
Such folly –
intent and sweat
beget progress –
Dreams manifest
when step by step
goals take charge
and God,
on the sidelines
applauds.
(Image my own)
Severity of disease
defines degree of marginalization
Who will enter the darkness;
rub shoulders with despair?
Disability is entrancing
but doesn’t invite engagement
We are mythical creatures,
those of us whom fate has chosen
Passage aborted, movement
encumbered, we fantasize
about normalcy –
to be forgiven, just a day
That we might shatter
our barricades, and bound
carefree into the ocean waves –
like the mermaids that we are.
(Image my own, aided by AI)
Time hinders
ability,
dictates new
cautions…
It doesn’t mean
we give up;
we just store
possibility
in tucked away
spaces –
as reminders
(Reminders first appeared here August 2018. Image my own)
3:33 AM
Startled awake
The answer
there, on the brink
Of course I lose it
rising to answer another call
Oh, how it taunts
Try to recapture the moment
find the right twist of body
as if I’m a radio tuner
signal lost
And what answer would that be, anyway?
Now fully awake, pondering questions –
only one applies
This newly formed fear
I’ve dared not voice it –
it cuts deep
Is there an answer
and if so, do I want to hear it?
I fall back to sleep
awake hours later
mind blissfully empty.
(Image my own)
I mine fragmented images
of nighttime forays,
grasping for a gem –
subject to trickery
impatient and unwise –
ego shields illumination
abhors vulnerability
distracts me with logic-
Still, the dreams continue
enticing a deeper dive
(Tuesdays, I borrow from Twitter @Vjknutson. Image my own)
Two decades before the fall
I dreamt of that white house
with black shutters,
entered the dimness
and saw myself –
withered, a straw body
Could I have altered the course
gathered that mummified self
in my arms, breathed new passion
into old bones, stopped
the onslaught of night
of cells freezing
passionless
No.
I walked in oblivion
seduced by false trickery
dim-witted in the fading light
cold, aloof, unresponsive
warnings be damned
Two decades later,
body inert, mind bereft
of hope – I dreamt
of a younger self
so intent on life
that she passed me by.
One Woman's Quest 