from a dream

they showed us the answer in a painting, unveiling it before all the assembled dead, and it made no sense at all to us (it somehow left us more confused than we were before we had been given an answer), but it helped us so much to have something to talk about, my aunt said

I see my grandmother in her room, all of us gathered around her bed, and I know I am dreaming
I try to wake up and return to the room; she is gone but the bed is still there; I am still dreaming

it is unsettling to dream dreams steeped in fantasy and fairytales, the dark rules-bound side of it, when it includes my relatives, some of whom are not dead and all of whom I know would not approve

Upon Waking

• I cannot fly
• I'm done with school
• I'm home and nowhere else
• No embarrassment has happened
• I don't have to worry about 
• whatever it was I was worrying about
• I cannot see or speak to my grandmother 
• ever again in this life
• I am alone

Inspired by Lists for the Future

Last night I dreamed of things that are not real.
I was in Prague with my sister,
peridots could be purple as well as green,
zoo animals were kept in water like fish,
and I sat in a train while you walked past outside,
your eyes searching for my face.
My dream was accurate in this:
your eyes were piercing, serious,
and I both wanted and did not want
you to see me.