Nocturne Poem by Jenny Kalahar

Dreamers draw from drops of seen and heard
Emotions like potions swirl and recombine
Pour from beakers into sieves and create new worlds from dusk to dawn
But why do the scenes repeat my last homes and not this one
Are dreams only past-life reflections
Do we enter heaven or hell and look back at life as it once was
Teeming with sorrow and mistakes
Loves and pleasures
Frustrations and routines recycling and mixing

Do we need to relive all of those old emotions
before we can move on in our dreams
Pour chocolate milk from Superman cartons
Clap along with Captain Kangaroo
Ride our bicycles at the edge of a sunlit lake
Pull open a heavy library door again and again
Sit in uncomfortable classrooms and take test after test
Kiss boys who meant almost nothing to us
Drive fast, a hand out a window, shaping the air with our fingers
Lay in hospital beds in worried uncertainty
Smash in car accidents in amazing slow motion
Run toward the love of our life with open arms, hearts thumping
Work at our jobs and fear bosses
Drive over massive, fog-enshrouded bridges for hours on end
Until relief comes at morning's alarm
or light, or shift of dog
And you drift up from hell
Or down from heaven
Or back to this so-called reality
Pulse racing
Realization shifting
An expression of horror or happiness still on our faces
Until the images fade to nothing, nothing, nothing
And you are safe for a day
In this version of the world
That won't invade your dreams for decades to come