The path to madness

It’s said
the road to Hell
is paved with good intentions.
I have wondered
about the path to madness.
Do they converge?


I sense, before sleep, in moments extended,
and just after waking, as well,
discreet conversations, both daft and demented,
disturbingly clear as a bell.

Inside the pink eyelids, the movies are playing,
just after the chatting is done.
The cunning creations are sometimes dismaying.
These slideshow dissolves, one by one.

Perhaps the withdrawal from drugs of my shame,
or the onset of early senility,
or a devious malady could be to blame
for the loss of a keen sensibility.

So I pray, as I battle, and inside I hide,
as I make a deep tunnel through snow,
digging for daylight and dearness denied.
(May I see, once again, ‘fore I go)

 

I dream of Jeannie

Before you call me an old lecher, this particular dream had no sexual content or feeling. It was more spiritual in nature.

It took place at a factory with which I was very familiar, having worked there for thirteen years. I ran the store room for engineering parts. It was a secured room, connected directly to the maintenance shop by a split doorway. Part of my job was to deliver parts to them, so I was a frequent visitor.

I noticed a young woman there, who was sweeping the floor and chatting with some of the mechanics. It was unusual because I had never seen a woman in there before. She gave me a sidelong glance as I was setting out parts and picking up broken ones etc. I just smiled, and continued what I was doing. I asked one of the mechanics who she was, and he said “That’s Jeannie. She just started yesterday”. (I kid you not).

While she was talking and sweeping, she kept looking in my direction. I became a little uncomfortable, and began finishing up my stuff so as to go back into the store room. I will say here that when women appear in my dreams, they are frequently composites of many that I have known, and Jeannie certainly was this.

I had gone in and closed my door, leaving the top half open, when I heard the buzzer go for the maintenance guys’ coffee break. They all left. Jeannie remained, and walked towards my doorway. I felt, in this dream state, that she moved with almost inhuman grace, if I may describe it thusly. She did not smile, but kept eye contact with me as she got to the door. She then placed her hands on the ledge, standing upright and not leaning. We were two feet apart. I decided it would be best to be businesslike, and so I asked what I could do for her. She said nothing, but gave her head an inquiring tilt to the side, keeping her eyes on me. I had the thought that it was as if Galadriel were silently questioning Boromir. I was completely tongue tied. At last, she leaned slightly forward, kissed me on the cheek, and walked away.

It was at this point that I woke up, went to the bathroom, and visited the kitchen for a drink. I am not one who falls back asleep very quickly after awakening, and so it must have been ten minutes at least before this happened.

For the first time in my memory, the same dream resumed. I was somehow informed by the dream that Jeannie had been promoted to a managerial position, and now had her own office. I had to go there to turn in some paperwork, when I noticed that she was talking to two or three men, with the door closed. She saw me waiting outside, and seemed to dismiss them, beckoning me to come in and sit.

The last thing that happened, before I lost the dream to transition, was that she came and sat down beside me. She picked up my hand with both of hers, and smiled with her eyes.

Dream in instalments

Early this morning, I had a pleasant and heartwarming dream.

For me, that is unusual in itself. I did not want it to end.

Its uniqueness lies in the fact that, after I awoke for the call of nature and went to get a drink, the dream resumed after the five or ten minutes it took to fall asleep once again. There, again, were the same characters, images, and emotions. I did not get closure before it transitioned into something else, or another stage of sleep.

I wonder how many of you have had this experience.

Where love has gone

There we were, we two little ones.

Brothers by blood.

Huddled in horror, sometimes.

Witness to warfare of spirit.

Knowing not where love had gone

Between the Mother and the Father.

Even at this tender age, we’d lost the joy

Of anticipation,

And looked longingly back on innocence.

Those two battling souls

Were like giants to us,

Their wicked words and warring ways

Like thunderbolts thrown from on high.

Electrifying us

With the terrible alchemy

Of self blame

At this tender age.

Inward

I crumple inward
Like the plastic bottle you suck the air from
Until your tongue hurts a little.
Like the Witch-King slain by Eowyn.
Like a fruit left out and filmed in time lapse.
Like the house in Carrie.
As if a vacuum hose were forcibly attached.

Thin and stretched
Like Baggins
Who felt like butter spread over too much bread.

A moving mummy.
A Sméagol
Preserved too long by an earned wickedness
With something noble yet to do
By accident.

Holding conversations
With opposing forces
Upon my shoulders.

Shrinking inward
As if in anticipated pain
From the wizened world.

Deep thoughts

  • I have heard we are Stardust. Joni Mitchell and Carl Sagan were probably right. That means that one of my father’s atoms could be in this very room as I write, or could even be part of the iPad that I tap upon.
  • I hope I am alive when we get to Mars. I want to know what it is. What is there. What was there. I want the true strange story, not something cooked up by government or national or private interests. It’s still a baby step for us, but maybe a launching pad.
  • If you write poetry, don’t put it on Facebook. No matter how many friends you have, the silence is deafening.
  • If you have any mental or emotional issues, you seem to attract people of the same persuasion.
  • Animals are brighter than some of us give them credit for. At least my cat is.
  • I pay for massages mainly for human touch. And they are good for you. Too.
  • If you stay long enough in a bath hot enough, you’ll turn quite red, and your heart rate will go to about 200. Unless you are a person of colour. I mean, the redness part. Oh God, that was clumsy.
  • One reason I am still alive is that I have treated my sleep apnea by wearing a Darth Vader mask for the last ten years.
  • I have a secret crush which I have hinted at in one or two poems. She knows, but just thinks it’s cute.
  • I live in a climate where one day my nose froze shut and I had to breathe through my mouth. This hurts the teeth a lot.
  • Battery is low now, so good night.

A noble profession

the hours are sometimes terrible
the lack of help is worse
they smile and do their duties
to which we’d be averse

they’re treated so abusively
by some who scream and curse
and yell at them accusingly
of trying to steal their purse

so now’s the time to give a smile
and bring along this verse
they always go the extra mile
they’re the ones that we call Nurse.

Little Green Wings (reprise)

As told in an earlier story, I’ve had a problem with sleeping drugs (hypnotics) for the last five years or so. As of today, and under supervision, I am down to one quarter of the dose I was using two months ago. The sleep has not been good, with four or five awakenings each night, and corresponding daytime tiredness, as well as other withdrawal symptoms. By next week, there will be zero pills. I have hope that things will improve. I have been a good boy, sticking to the schedule, but this kind of stuff is hard on us old guys.

What did I see?

I was driving eastbound on a familiar road.  It went straight as a die for many miles and had a low horizon of bush.  The day was overcast, in early fall.  As I drew closer to the perceived line of trees, there was an object in the sky slightly above the horizon.  It resembled nothing else but a huge black kite, and, indeed, it behaved like one, in the respect that it gradually changed positions in the sky.  Sometimes viewed almost edgewise, other times as a definite kite shape.  What struck me was its size.  I knew it had to be immense, because the further I approached, it did not seem to grow larger or change positions relative to me,  a sensation very similar to trying to drive by the moon.  It stayed with you.  I viewed it for a full five minutes before I had to cut off towards my destination, for which I was already late.  I regret that now.  It was definitely changing shape or moving obliquely in the sky, and presented different aspects during this time.
It had a stark outline, with straight sides, and could not have been a cloud.  This mystery has stayed with me for the twenty some years since I witnessed it.