Transport

Some kind of earth-moving equipment
& then a settlement that wasn’t quite
far away enough to be uninvadeable.
Then going somewhere for Mardi Gras
& fretting in advance about transportation.
Getting stopped or stuck at this combo
bar/amphitheatre. The person with me—
a sister, I think—took the car off with a
stranger to find something or other, maybe
gas. I followed some shady character’s
directions to a bathroom then found myself
stranded on a tiny concrete island & realized
that I was the entertainment for a crowd sitting
in the bar/amphitheatre. More fretting: how
was I going to get off the island, how could I
avoid the water, should I fish or have a
drink—it was maddening. Earlier still &
interspersed throughout, in various dream
countries planning to visit or move to other
dream countries or discovering suddenly that
I’d actually been living someplace for several
years. Later, dinner parties with intimate
acquaintances I’d never seen before. Then
uninvited insane relatives from
somebody else’s dream interacting with
ghosts & monsters wrecking a hotel suite I
had to pay for & to think that while you
lie helpless in bed your mind embarks
upon such reckless excursions.

Dreamy

in the dreamy dream the deer becomes
a dinosaur, the hunter hangs his clothes
out on the line, the stop sign does not say stop
the clocks do not keep time, the dogs
have made a playhouse with the wolves

in the dreamy dream you drive a dreamy car
that becomes a dreamy boat that then becomes
a dreamy snake–listen, he whispers
something sinister is going on beneath
those dreamy trees down at the dreamy pond

in the dreamy dream the blood pressure cuff
is a shark’s mouth, all measurements
everywhere close down
someone is saying something but
you are hearing all the things
no one has ever said

in the dreamy dream no one is waiting for you
when peace comes everyone is gone, when
all the world has been translated
no one lingers, no one arrives
every door there has a secret
every revelation has a secret side