dreams xi

I awake
and wonder if I’ve had them
a puzzle
a box without a key
a single thought leads to a chain
then there is a string of memories.

I’m in a big white house
a familiar house
my house
yet I never lived there
a beautiful house up on a grassy hill
I’m just a boy
and I’m straying around places I shouldn’t be
I’m in my brother’s room
his private place above the garage
forbidden territory
but he’s been gone for days now
I’m looking for clues to some kind of mystery.

The dog in the room is glad to see me
and scampers about excitedly
the bathroom door
it drives him mad
so I open it.

The kittens flood out
fleeing like wild mice from a field on fire
so many of them
a flood of kittens
three stalwart mothers among them.

What’s my brother doing with so many cats?
Did he hide them here? Did he forget about them?
Is one mother perchance a father?
What have they been eating?
And what am I to do now that I’ve opened the genie’s bottle?

I scoop up the dog
less he gobble up a kitten or two
and hold him tight as he wriggles to be free, howling
I watch my feet less I should step on a little kitten
as they rub up against me, purring,
wanting me to pick them up.

Shifting, shifting, shifting
fast forward
fast reverse
I’m not really sure

I meet an old friend in a bread shop
oh what a bread shop
sweet pastries freshly baked
can you smell in dreams?
I’m sure I can.

Everything so clean, so neat
all the pastries with soft powder sugar sprinkled on them
my friend is talking about the Internet
he’s telling me there are places
places I haven’t been to
places I should go
I’m in rapt interest
I realize I’m in a hospital
a lonely one during the holidays …