Sunday, October 20, 2013

<nightmare>

<nightmare>
 <i>
  <\a man with a future>
  <\a man with dreams>
  <\a man with nothing to lose>
  <\a man with everything to lose>
   <present>
    they live with me still:
    taste of her thighs
    on humid nights
    in Ithaca. Me in the library
    decoding symbolic
    logic with a key
    that made no sense
    but worked
    out in the proof.
    <past>
     it - whatever
     it is - remains.
     whether I will
     or no: brain cells
     puzzling out
     memories
     like a wishing 
     well
     <future>
      it will come
      to pass 
      or not:
      the house
      in Old Town,
      happiness 
      or true love.
      the days shorten
      along with
      the years.
      <sleep>
       i pull your hair
       from the fire,
       your skin blackened
       on the severed head
       my father threw there
       in a rage of sorrow
       that earth knows
       when scrying 
       the skies for rain,
       his animal cry
       sinking its teeth
       into the tongues
       of withered 
       wheat fields.
       </sleep>
      </future>
     </past>
    </present> 
   </i>
</nightmare>

Copyright 2013 Charles David Miller. All rights reserved.