Living Dreams

This is a poem I wrote for the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards Silver Key. I love poetry beyond anything, and this was one of my first attempts.

bottomless dark dams so black 

there is no end,

crowded 

school cafeterias

without a vacant seat,

and silent 

low casted 

streets.

assembled out of daylight thoughts

and nagging memories,

my dreams bring me back

hours,

days,

and years.

before I go to bed,

bury my head into my lap,

thinking of something

I wish to see.

I pray

that my mind will dream this for me,

give me a chance,

to live in the world I’ve imagined. 

I squeeze my eyes back shut,

clench my toes,

slow down my breath,

to reenter the story.

step back into the main character,

discover what my ending is.

to stay in that world

forever. 

I often awake smiling,

a dream fuzzed my insides.

my eyes half open,

lost in the

discontinued

stumbling dream, 

waiting for the ending.

my dreams repeat.

a cage of predators

ferocious beings filling glass rooms

surrounding me until i cannot breathe.

stumbling across 

a bridge with snakes 

entangled underneath.

walking down 

the familiar gray hallways 

of old schools,

reuniting with those who’ve already forgotten me.

my mind chooses a nightmare,

as I’m about to perish

and disappear,

tell myself to wake up,

begging my eyelids to open.

awake with a shaken breath,

I huddle back into the rumpled blankets,

and without knowing it,

go back to sleep.

going about my day,

have I lived this moment before?

stare at my hands, 

look around as the next action,

next scene,

settles into place.

I've lived this life before.

was it in my dream?

or am I in a dream,

reliving the actions that have already happened?

dreams,

fragments of my shattered hopes,

the pieces of a life

coiling

and twisting