day

i had a dream

i was a whirlwind tornado

i was flying debris

i landed, the earth cracked, the cracks were void

i picked one, i followed it, through fields of corn, through fields fallow, down into an empty creek bed, and beyond where it stopped

i laid down in the soft grass

i looked up at the sun, i watched the shapes of the clouds, i closed my eyes

a journey

she sits down on that street corner, on a saturday afternoon - no bus is coming, no other children wait. and she slips under the concrete, it melts suddenly below her, giving way into a small dark room. she floats in its exact center, the exact center of this small cube of a room. it is dark red, and black, and blurry, like it is a painting of a room, but smudged. a painting of a room someone never finished, the subjects missing, lost in the mind of the artist, forgotten as he tucked that canvas below some other works in progress, feeling stuck, not sure how to proceed. he leaves the studio frustrated, walks out onto the street, wishes it were a grey day but it is not, the sun is shining and birds are even singing and what can you do when even the weather won't cooperate?

he leaves the city, walking slowly out through parks and suburban yards and right of ways, passing through stands of tress and new developments, eventually finding himself moving uphill, onto a mountain, through fields of blueberries, not yet ripe. he climbs up a tall but not the tallest peak, he builds a house and goes in and locks the door. there are no windows and it is a perfect cube and he sits and he waits for something to happen.

lifeguard

shrinking riddles, flying up and around through and between you go and wait for certain tea time gestures of polite company giving in and running amok. clothes fly off, nails dig in, teeth come out and you are bruised and they cackle like halloween witches, chasing and looking for you. for your family. for your home. but you hide, so well. you hide and hide and hide and

flip into the pool, a twisted backflip off the high dive, a move no one could have expected, on your first trip out, something no one could have wanted, you, flying, hurtling towards the water below and splash

dive down
remember
touch the bottom
there is a yellow brick there
in the mud

there is a marsh
you paddle through
you recline and stare upwards
dragonflies stop and visit
children run and laugh, but it is silent
the boat stops and just floats, and your eyes flutter

you wake up sunburned and run towards shore, miraculously walking on water, running on water! screaming for someone to come and help you as you sink slowly into land on the shore.