Imagined #3:

In dreams we explore

the possibility that all aspects are present

and ever-changing, fluid as water, strong

as mercury, these forms haunt

in the deepest corners of us, rise

in the night as sleep releases Hercules’ grip

upon the mind, the demands

fallen soft, gentle as breath,

so that the striving that is existence,

the tiring strain to rise,

relaxes its grip, our fist becomes a hand,

the hand, a cradle –

rest easy child,

close your eyes, breath deep,

let the daylight turn soft,

become a candle to flicker in the night,

feel the breeze rock the spirit,

let the thoughts drift —

and as we sleep, the inner daemons,

both terrifying and calming,

on horses and boats, or flying

with wings that caress our eyelashes

so that we twitch

behind the closed blinds,

visit us with images of the eternal,

of all that inhabits the stone,

the table, the man,

not in the world we call real

but in the real world of the imagined.