Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Nightmare and Dream



“I walked, in my dream,
Through the halls of my palace.
And I came, dream world wandering,
To a room that I have never seen.
The walls were unadorned
And bare, and on the floor,
Neither marble nor carpet.
A whirlwind twisted
And one of my chickens,
Pecking seed from the floor,
Stood centered in the eye.

Then that whirlwind vanished from my dream room.
It left only bare stone walls,
The feather of raven,
And me.”

The Auger spoke his prophecy.
The wife of Augustus went on her way.
Where he slept that night, his innards were cut from him,
And from the pulsing bowels
Another future came.

Lady Livia,
I too have seen

your whirlwind,
A devil in a dust sportcoat,
Spinning in a room adorned only with
Tufts of lupin flowers,
A dancing, onyx feather,
And a ceiling of cloud high above.
You should have asked Jocasta and Creon;
The future, once spoken, can never be changed.

I walked in your gardens and looked for you,
Lady Livia, but found only
Olive grove blooming,
And dust devil dancing,
In a room that to you
Must have seemed more a nightmare than dream.

No comments: