I Dreamed I Was Sleeping

In the dream, of course, I was awake, and yet dreaming I was sleeping, 

If not sleeping, waiting,

Some unmeasured length of time; weightless, waiting,

Sidestroke glide, close to shore,

Flutter kick, one arm still, one back then pointing, forward,

Sidestroke, sideshore,

Beach, bluff, streetlights,

Outline to the Sky,

Sky,

That further ocean.

Gliding silent inside a globe,

A lens of sorts, crystal, foggy on the edges,

Like condensation on a windshield,

And I’m not waiting for the clearing.

Gliding forward, silent, thinking,

“Nothing, nothing, nothing.”

And there is nothing; all the thoughts kept out,

Contemplation,

The chaos and the chatter and confusion,

Outside the lens, outside the globe,

Still there are lights too bright to block,

These I see too clearly.

“Nothing, nothing, nothing.”

And then, suddenly it seemed, I awoke.

But, perhaps, I was awakened.

Something…

I was waiting for Trish to get home from shopping/visiting with our daughter, Dru; and, because my body tells me to sleep at around ten pm, Pacific Standard Time, and because Trish, when I called her, said it would be later, I went to sleep. Then I woke up. Then, knowing there would be a phone call to tell me Trish would be home in somewhere around thirty minutes, I had a bit of trouble going back to sleep. I know I had to have been asleep, but it seemed interesting, even amusing, to me that I was dreaming I was trying to get to sleep.

Please forgive me for going anywhere near poetryland; but, on the other hand, take that, Daniel.

SURFWISE: It seems like the northeast Pacific is generating surf for everywhere else. Hopefully you can pick up a little corner somewhere. Good luck.