Dreams on my right
dreams on my left
doors all around
behind each and every
a cataclysm awaits
yet through only one
total catastrophe
and a worthy chance
at redemption.

– matt at shadow of iris

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Speak in dreams
every word a picture
iconography
a visual collage
that tells you a secret
you can never quite
hear.

– matt at shadow of iris

I’m in high school again.
I don’t know how I got here
nor do I want to be here.

There are aliens all around
hidden from humans under masks
and I’m never quite sure
but think I might be one.

I move about the hallways
moving around the students
always wary I’ll be made out.

I stumble across a large room
walls that stretch up high
a wide open chamber
a trial is taking place
the purported crime —
this student is an alien.

Among the jurors
I recognize more than one alien
their masks translucent
these are b-grade movie aliens
large malformed heads and insect eyes
they bang their fists
ready to judge the accused
who
frankly speaking
looks
all too human.

There is an explosion
a slow lugubrious one
no one is even hurt
in slow motion people begin to panic
and to search for the nearest exits
everyone moving to leave
I as well
but first I want to go by school administration
where I find an empty office
and two large chocolate frogs on a person’s desk
one frog lops up the other
and smiles
feeling certain it hasn’t been seen
but it has.

I make my way outside
and find myself sharing a large train platform
full of students
only there is a problem
where the train tracks should be relative to the platform
there is only a small field of tall grass
there is no train coming
but everyone waits.

A sign on a column
in green, red, and yellow
is explicitly a notice for the reggae club
but actually
it is a secret code
telling me where I’ll find Telemachus
as he has infiltrated the school.

I ask one of the more intelligent students
school’s over, isn’t it?
he replies
yeah, I guess.

I step off the platform
into the tall grass
and make my way for the parking lot
then in the distance near the main road
I see two angels
standing by a slick red car
a well dressed man and a woman
sleek and beautiful people
they wave to me
and offer me a ride
I wave back
but decline
I’ve my own car
it’s then that I realize
I’ve forgotten where I parked it.

– matt at shadow of iris

A mouse moving under the carpet
a small lump, cartoonish
a white mouse in a cage
always safe, well fed
but always restless
it sticks its nose between the bars
and rubs
till its nose is sore and red, even scarred
it gnaws on the bars of the cage
a grating sound
that won’t let you rest
until finally
not being able to bear it anymore
you take it out to the woods
and let it go …

Second thoughts overwhelm you
guilt
a white mouse against red leaves
a sore thumb
snake fodder
you reach out to grab it
because even if
you can’t let it live
you can’t let it die
but even as you move to snatch it up
it’s faster than your hands
and quickly gone
the deed done.

You’ve stepped out of time
into a small dark chamber
stony walls and dark shades
of fluorescent violet and green
time flows onwards
but only outside the cave
never within
you can watch friends, family, life
moving forward
leaving you behind
all through a misty door –
do you step through
back into time?
Or do you stay there forever
and watch?

Far, far away
in a passage through a cave
or on a trail through a dark section of woods
you spy an eerie wavering light
you halt
you are not alone
behind you stands an old guardian
a harsh face and an old stony voice
he promises you safety, honor
but only if you slay
the shadowy figure out in front
yet the shadow’s voice is soothing
and it beckons you forward
towards the shimmering light
with promises of flesh and power.

You are in a restaurant
clean, cool, and spiffy
you’ve order coffee
you sit with one friend
and another has gone to use the rest room
the drinks arrive
hot steaming drinks, one milky green tea
reaching for yours
you clumsily spill sugar on the table
you scoop some up
and place it in your absent friend’s cup
thinking it’ll flavor his tea
but your friend who is present asks
“why are you putting poison in his cup?”

– matt at shadow of iris

These dreams are flighty things.

I dreamed all night, I’m sure of it
my consciousness flittering in and out of images
a tiny fish among the wavering coral
always at play in the currents
yet this is all I’ve to show for it
how it greaves me not to know
where else I must have traveled.

– matt at shadow of iris

An inhibited idea
held back by nature
and by degree
pushes forth at night
as pinkish slices of grapefruit
and probing kisses.

Uncontrollable elements
yield extraneous events
leading to an autonomous complex
from perfect clarity
to deepest confusion
clamoring life is all around
I’m drowning in your arms
the look in your face
as you look down
a sulky look.

– Marya Ophir

Now and again
the same dreams
haunting me.

Moving sensuously over flesh
sylvan arches draped in long moss
the ghost of an idea
the height of urban spirit.

– suraab

Dreams fade
and dreams return
early morning dreams.

Mouth parted
ordinary words
that never emerge
instead
stimulus words that hit a complex
a striking effect
smitten
sinking into amnesia
little gasps of pleasure along the way.

– suraab

Less his dreams should escape him
less his hopes should desert him
he shuffled them all together
and neatly put them in a box
he sealed the top carefully
and wrapped it all up nicely
he hid his boxed dreams with great secretiveness
in a place where no one would ever find them
but where that place was
still as of yet
he has not remembered.

– matt at shadow of iris

Words fell from his lips
imaginary things
but to him
real
small seeds
desperate for soil
and water
desperate for life
he watched them grow
he saw
the pains of their birth
the glory of their blossoming
the awe of their final maturing
and
the void left at their passing
searching for the place
where dreams have gone.

– matt at shadow of iris