Dream of the Dream Eater 「貘の夢」

I am a unicorn in a lilac wood.

I was one of those women living in the waves

half way between the sea of dreams and the sea of tranquility.

On Venus waves

the sea she beckons

with Charybdis’ kiss

don’t be afraid of the sirens

that pass by on the streets at night

the red and blue lights

the blood and blue whirl into one choppy purple

I feel a fin grope my leg

I twitch

the foam is soft

against my face

the cool of a silken pillow

I am waiting for someone

and forgot to stay awake

I float up to the surface

and fall back down into Lethe’s cold waters.

I am shivering

It’s just a cold sheet

and a short, white slip

I am a woman in New York City

I jump

and deeper I fall

Cocytus’ echoes slip away from my earshot

in Queens

that bark is sailing away with the one I love

like a song from an old book of ballads

where a woman was spirited away by a ***** living on the waters.

I’m forgetting to wake up again

In my old age,

mid-eternity,

I am starting to forget my dreams

I thought life would be different

Her cat is dying

and there is incessant knocking at the purring door

It is her landlord,

what could he want at this hour

the wind picks up

and a tree that wasn’t there before is wiping and winding back and forth from the gale

I am at the edge;

guarding the four corners of the world

I am the angels outside of Eden

waiting for someone to come and collect the Lord’s inheritance.

I am a child

I am a crone

Upon Kate Chopin, I came crawling along my bed,

nocturne is playing,

red lights are flashing

the timer on all the clocks are stuck on the same minute and hour

The power has gone out in the night; no light, but the moon and stars will return me home

I am the Lord’s own parable

drifting in and out on the orchestra

of a purring cat

this hour is waning and the one next to me is awakening

coffee percolating in my ear

the smell is warm even in the winter

I awaken in the moonlight

I slept on my neck the wrong way

I am a beast halfway between so many different crossroads

across a golden marsh of dreams

…

a white flag; I have given up on sleeping tonight

I wish it was raining

It would be so easy to fall back asleep then

I am skydiving

the wind is flying by

and the ground is rushing fast towards me

I will be like the egg of a cuckoo’s enemy

dashed upon the rocks like a broken ship

shattered like a potter’s clay vessel

an eagle had been carrying me away and dropped me

I am a young woman again

I am in a beautiful house in LA.

I am speaking to someone and I drop red wine on the carpet

I’m so sorry

Pythagorean theorem

Sphinx’s riddle

I am sitting in a busy train station

a man kisses me

and I am eating the moon cakes of a Chinese New Year

a rabbit has made them

my father went to the market and bought them after work when I was a child

and they’ve traveled through time to be here with me now

Who am I running from?

The lights have gone out

a man is walking to bed

footsteps with nobody there

the creak as if a weighty body is upon the wood.

The knocking is louder, but

it isn’t coming from anywhere

no, it might be coming from inside my heart

something inside me wants to come out

a manticore scratches my stomach as I turn over

the hair that trails down from my navel has a traveler

a fond lover’s hand rubbing softly over a womb full of a griffin’s eggs

there is a complication during pregnancy and I lose you

somewhere in the woods

a young man plays his lyre, singing,

Half mad and mumbling something about a unicorn in a lilac wood

where we talked all night for the last time

oh, the memories of our love

oh, the memories of lost love

My grandfather asks me ‘What did I want to be when I was a child?’

I am visiting him for the last time. He has slipped into a medically induced coma and hasn’t awakened.

I am the only voice he responds to and it is only a half-dreaming, ‘Hm?’

I am running through the woods,

a forked tree

split in two long ago,

grows side by side

like two birds that share a wing

they are two trees that share one branch

We are holding hands

the song of the young man has somehow grown old

and has been playing since I first met him

You were their king, Lear,

but you were my prince, Lear

You were my prince, Lear

when I was a unicorn in a lilac wood

and knew nothing of love

stroking, my hair

mortal coils of the moirai; lovers chord

the hairs of my head are the strings he is playing on

gently, gently

he plucks the strings as if playing the koto

blowing like a lover’s soft flute in my ear

his mouth

sucking on my lobe

a moistened reed

dream’s lover’s nightmare

Cupid’s bow comes down

tongue’s arrows darting at my cheek

dreams of romance come alive as I sleep

dearly departed,

I am here to say rise again

It’s morning and the cock is crowing

desire is awakened in me again

I am being rocked by ocean’s waves

I’m dreaming of my child

draped in Venus splendor

She’s come

She’s finally come

My child’s come at last

Eos is here and la vie en

roses are blooming

in a field, by a two tree’s stump

I am meeting my lover for the last time

He says:

I am the tear that falls in love with you

My pillow is wet

and when I awake in the morning

the tears are still pooled,

leaking from my eyes

and finally I believe him