dream
dreambreaker
keeper of the house of ushers
hand me the torch
and onto the ridge of slumber
whose downward rushing slope beyond
the woodland of its seedling truth
its runnels flora and its fowls
and bees
its cloud breached skyline and its fells
holds connections through the forest glades
the primrose path to all mankind
both here and gone whose trackways overgrown
by waking time
are bright under the luminant of sleep
and were it for sure
i would take the first bath of many
beneath the waterfall
whose waters clarity a metaphor to cleanse my mind
the next a baptismal pool
in which communion with the natural world
made real by intuition
betrays reliance on its kind
and its sufferance be forewarned
thus would i be reinstated in its constitution
and third a spring bath
whose healing waters cure the curse of age
but leave the knowledge of its passing still intact
and so on with hopeless dreaming paths
for
among the temptations of understanding
assumption is waiting by the cut
and wisdom by the far way
among the limitations of that knowing
you will find touchstones at the borders edge
some new, some mossed and pitted
read with ancient lichens
which interpret omens
laid upon the system of the place
and so i came upon a clearing
whose meaning was uncertain
a tableau
an old temple smelled of worship
on its limed and scented floor
scattered sundry crumbs
whence a finch brought its brood of eight
whether through distractions dull
the delights of motherhood maybe
none noticed the feral dog that strikes
the finch defends its beauty but caught and winged
the callous crunch of death defines its end
so nine will die
the red seam of life
blood marks and their strew
drew a shape not unlike a horses head
revealed among the debris
which in itself becomes a metaphor
an emblem in the telling
nothing is without consequence
though at the time
its connection unrelated
only later will i see the axiom of its structure
and this will point the path to understanding