I

nightmare

beware

nightmare

beware

coming into your room

nightmare

beware

night...nightmare
rising to seize you

feel the negative vibes
infiltrate your head and heart
turn into explode

swim with all your might
to the surface of a black lake
fifteen feet to go
before you’re back above the waves
 

II

in a dream within this dream
i saw a twisted vision
a hurricane building as never before
slowly come my way
but when I tried to run
the storm was all around me
and when I saw the cause of it
I could not find my legs

for out from the ground
there came a beast
with fatal wounds
a long time healed
the ends of swords
broken off
from those
who’d tried to slay it
and then there grew
a frightful sound
as never I’d heard before
for from every mouth
of the dragon’s heads
I heard the demons wail

I screamed at it
to go away
but it just grinned
then laughed at me
drowning out
any cry for help
as it quietly continued
to study me
then just as quickly
as it had rose
it went back down
from where it came

I woke up
drenched in sweat
my face as wet
as the rain coming in
through an open window
from the storm
that raged outside

© 1979
Revised © 2016

820 hits as of November 2023

06/28/2016

Author's Note: The second poem in the collection, Along The Vertical Horizon, following, Mother Sky, and the opening piece, In Hindsight.

Posted on 06/28/2016
Copyright © 2024 Chris Sorrenti