The aftertaste of a dream

I once had a dream
That appeared to me
Like the impression of a rainbow’s beam
Shining sun-bright -
In the monochrome shaded folds of sleep
Laced with the misty eyes of clouded heads
And sense shut-out by
The blinds that framed my bed -
Yet still I was dazed by some halo glare
Of light
That dazzled all shadowed lines
To dim them cleanly out of sight
And sweep
Them out of mind –

And so my world became a blur
Of happy hazy thoughts on wings
And a summer warmth in winter air
That I never felt the cold stir -
And I ventured without coat, or care
With hands so open, skin so bare
Holding nothing back.
Oh to feel the future firm
It’s uncertain and wavering track.
The path I walked was soft as silk
Suspended in the wind
As sure as stone I told myself
As I walked the line
Half asleep, eyes shut half blind
But never did I feel more alive
My world so vivid, so bright, so lit
With your beacon blazing by my side -

How came a dream that left a dent
Heavy, in my pillow
It wafted sweetly into my head
And pretended to cement.
Stealing into the chamber door
Until it left its scent
Latched, locked, sealed,
And then, as sudden as it came
As sudden as that, it went.
And all the world that seemed so real,
It broke awake like the break of dawn
At the tolling ring of truth.
And awoke unto what seemed a dream
A folly, a nightmare, a feverish fright
As what was a whole world to me
Unravelled at the fraying seams

And turned pale, like a living dream -
That had quite lost it’s breath -
The ghostly fragments faded and
Disintegrated into the purple night
And left me with the faint impression
That all colour and light had been drained away
As the waking world drew into focus
And felt so sharp, in black and white
And clear, outlined in grey.
The shadows formed, stark in my mind
Twisting like black ink through the mixture
Of pretty memories that trickled out of my grasp
And tried to be forgotten –
But left behind the tantalizing aftertaste
So bitter and sweet on my tongue.