A Dream Within a Dream Dreaming

How much repetition

before we loop back

to originality?

You finally released

the locking sphenoid

that kept me clenched

to your ghost;

apnea aside

I rest easy now.

Now

I easily rest

aside apnea

and she smothers

me seldomly.

Sometimes

I can’t breathe

when I’m asleep

and I awake violently

to snakes and hornets

on my pillowcase.

I dislocate my shoulder

fending them off

before I awake

again

beside myself.

3rd and Union

I’ve adopted a new

singing style.

I should make it clear

I don’t sing.

I watched the water

beneath the giant ferris wheel

and felt compelled

to fantasize with my eyes halved.

Nine doors before you

before you

and I don’t know

what I’m trying to say.

How do we say this?

How do we harness the wind

that carried me here

and carried my fear

and flew the colossal walkway

seemingly illuminated

to the dead end

of waterfront public seating;

from the west coast

to the Midwest and now

and earlier

and the shivering organs.

Town Guys and M-Rods

Drinking ashes

out of an aluminum can

I know now

I only have two original bones

in my cryptic body

and they both need

chiropractic manipulation.

Like a series

of zippers stitched

diagonally

to the left half

of your brain,

we got caught on

theoretical threads

and scurried off to the stream

to fall in love

on Lucifer’s blackest beach.

I was wearing

your best lie

wrapped in muffled

confessions;

I couldn’t read your crooked

kiss –

like (you were) saying

he’s a beautiful writer

vs.

he writes beautifully.