quickly, before i forget the visions of the previous night:
in any town's
downtown where i've never been
or perhaps will never chance to see--
it's one of those conglomerations of
things seen and things hoped for, i believe--
a forested path with stoned steps leading down
into a grove slightly resembling a
parking lot.
what business a parking lot had
in the middle of the woods, i have no clue,
but as i mentioned, this was downtown,
and
anything goes down there.
there was a crowd gathered, though staying back
a little ways, as if there was some danger within.
i could emphathize somewhat, as the day
was tiring and the light was starting to hide,
but i couldn't feel any presence of danger where i stood;
so i walked on past the crazen crowd to see what i could.
i think i was in a car, though, gazing back through foggy memory,
i'm not certain; whatever my mode of transportion,
it made me glide by bright things and look twice on things shadowed--
a prophetic car it might have been, then,
because it revealed only what was relevant to the dream's progression.
to get back to the scene (quickly, wasn't that what i said?),
spotlighted by absent lightpoles and posed on
makeshift podiums were some kind of ethereal exhibitionists.
not one could lay claim to hair
or could be cursed with natural height.
i think most people thought them monsters, creatures to be feared,
but i called them gnostics, because they had appeared
to shaken off the world's warped perception of reality
and created their own--greater, more marvelous in every respect.
one was clothed in bright gold, though most were in black.
they all seemed to dance to an unheard rythym,
and one's rhythym, above all the rest,
appealed to me the most. he noticed my interest,
leaned forward and streatched out his gargantuan hands,
looked me in the eye. i don't remember what i think,
and i've no idea what i was supposed to think.
it was just a moment shared by a stranger and an onlooker.
what he saw in me and i in him was no doubt just the
peculair trappings of a life not his own.
someday i'd like to find a downtown not entirely
unlike this one i dreamt and live a life unknown to me.
and i'd like to touch one's hand that's held out
just to see what skin feels like on a different body.
whatever wisdom i've gained from a night's good rest
is not divined from some subconscious wish,
but realized in my surroundings. dreams come more than once,
insurance in case you lose them.