night world reverie

The world bends between sleep
at four am the cannibals
wanted to tear my flesh from my bones
and not even the friendly decapitation
of monsters under the bed
could keep me from waking
with a panic-attack heart
sitting up and switching on the lights
telling myself it’s not real
while I swore I could still feel
wet teeth pressed against my shoulder blades

The world bends between sleep
and the memory of dreams
that wakes us in terror or contemplation
from tsunami drowned death camps
in sepia wars I wasn’t born to live through
to a touch, a kiss, a forbidden look
that in daylight hours can make no sense
but in that place, in that space
we are what we are
and I wake confused and alive
in ways I don’t want to be

The world bends between sleep
and I crash after work
into a bed of  surreptitious dreaming
where children smoke cigarettes
and sing country music on ghost town roads
where not even the linear makes sense
and I cannot save myself from the story

© Indie Adams 2014
17-9-14
30 Day Poetry Challenge Day 14