On Break From The Offices

on break from the offices

before the weekend weddings of our friends

we halfway hid under the underpasses

of a cavernous place

from desert to desert

passing the time

no coffee. no dessert.

unless you think waiting is delicious and a treat.

even without cream, the skies.

discussing. making the time go by.

suddenly, I felt to leave as in a dream

or a movie you know

now's a good time for that.

too late, the armies with their new flash lights

showing off came running up and now it was night.

but as in the fairytale, the magic egg appeared.

though it was plain white, only a little oversized

I prayed in the name of Jesus, cracking it open:

inside, everythiing to make a world. all food stuffs,

notions.

a golden one I thought?

and then I woke up.

mary angela douglas 15 july 2014

Note on the poem:  this is an exact retelling of a dream I had early evening July 15, 2014.

The only embellishment being the part about coffee and dessert and the creamless skies, about which there was no consciousness at all.

Everything else in the poem was in the dream, except that

when the armies with the flashlights came, I couldn't find room to say in the poem that they were scientists and not political, looking somehow happy and relieved to find us, and even more happy to find the enormous egg, or to find us finding it. It seemed to be simultaneous almost, the two events: their arrival and our finding the egg - but, a little off in synchronicity as it is in music sometimes when someone is new to practicing.

I forgot to say at the point they showed up I tried to wake myself up in the dream and thought I succeeded and then I thought, seeing them still there conversing among themselves, but you're not supposed to be here, anymore I'm awake...shortly after that I did awake for certain.  I have been reading Kazuo Ishiguro's  lovely book The Unconsoled all week with its spacious dream landscapes and irritations so maybe this was an influence.

The question of whether it was a golden or good world in the egg was something I wondered when I woke up thinking of the dream details. But the atmosphere of the dream was not negative just not something I wanted to be bothered with.

I wanted to rest.