The Working Dreamer's Angst

by Cheryl Smith - Aries


I don’t want to dream anymore.
My psyche only allows for nightmares
& my consciousness is clouded by visions.
I am blind, trying to see everything
clearly; I am a seasoned fool
that dreamers become with age.
Striving for success
that only fools still believe in.

I keep making list.
List that keep piling up
like walls of cement & mortar.
List that document just how far
behind I am; isn't that a nightmare?
List that measure my work.
They are like scrolls,
written on papyrus in blood.
Ancient is my soul, isn't that a vision?

What would you know of me?
I have vainly revealed, in writing
cryptic lines, inept words, that keep spilling
over from my brain spewing onto page.
Nothing is as pitiful as the woman
or man who knows not themselves
but insist on talking about that stranger.
The journey into the soul is steep & perilous.

I keep singing songs.
Songs that are really dirges
jazzed up, and funk-ta-fied for amusement.
No matter the tempo, the nightmare comes.
I sing original tunes, relentlessly to stifle
the voices that prophesize 
prosperity, that is nested in visions.
Each day I pray for rest & wisdom
that is never easy to come by.
Experience is a bitch of a band leader.

I am an astronaut.
Voyaging into the space & never leaving
this temple, this earth, this home
decorated in honey/red/brown/supple skin.
I imagine that I will return to like matter 
somewhere between Chicago shoulders
and Heavens womb, safely resting.
Until then, I will not dream anymore.

www.inthenoteofc.com
2/4/02

Reason for writing:

    life    

Birth sign: Aries
Date created: 2002-04-05 00:34:37
Last updated: 2021-03-03 14:46:15
Poem ID: 68894

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