A Dream You Don’t Remember Remembers You
Tell him he's an onion, the ringing in someone else's ear.
- overheard while sleeping
I exchange lives with my dream self and decide to remain
asleep. I have more personality
there, tend to get better
advice. I'm always the obvious interloper,
mindlessly fumbling for change or asking for the john.
I meet a woman pregnant with meaning.
There's a song on the jukebox she wants to hear
again but I can't read her mind so far inside mine.
The drowned boy is there towel-drying his hair.
My parents too, how young, still expecting me
to be born. A child climbs down from the ceiling
to light a match under my chin, see if I flinch
or flicker. If you want to learn to lucid dream
pretend you've died that really helps.
There our relatives grow less relative. Is that my body
or half a passing cloud? Each time I move
one hand the other disappears.
