old dreams

i've had unsettled dreams
and have woken up
in a hot sweat, fumbling
the blankets off
with a fragments
of feeling
slowly sloughing away
like a receding tide.

i guess i am old enough
to try and divine
some non-mystical reason
for having such dreams,
our world has passed
beyond the times
when portends and omens
carried any weight,
now we seek and prod
at more definable causes
some psychological tick
or hidden desires
lying just beneath
our subconscious, poking through
just enough
to disturb my sleep.

as if we have
any control over
what we dream about!

and yet, the dreams
still hold me,
and more so
as i grow older
they seem to carry
over into the waking
hours with greater
clarity and force
than they have before
and i hope
that is the reason

because i can think
or at least picture
in my mind
some subversive demon
or fantastic alien brain
trying desperately
to contact me
and since i am asleep
they never get through
and they are getting
quite annoyed at me
frustrated to the point
that they would rather
move on to someone else
than keep trying
and that might mean
that i never dream again
and that would be sad.

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