Vivid Dreams

Wake up to cool air slipping over my face

Looking around

Scared.

I can still feel his hand on my arm,

And the other on my waist.

 

Looking around it was only a dream

But I can feel it still

The heat,

The pressure,

The presence of another person.

 

I hate these dreams,

When I can feel the people

Even years later.

 

Eyes probing the dark

Scared to see what may be in the dark corners.

 

The vivid dreams

Always being remembered at the worst times

And sending me back into the cold icy clutches
of the fear of being alone.

Author's Note

what do you think?? any suggestions? any comments just in general?

Reviews

[Toni Prehoda Kahler]

This poem feels intense to me, especially the dream of his arms on your hands and waist, and the way you hate the remembering of "the heat/the pressure/the presence of another person. You create a feeling of fear and dread throughout, and when I first read the last line it threw me a curve for a minute, because I read it as an expression of being lonely. But I realized it didn't match what had come before. On second read I think I understand that when you were alone, that's when the hands came to you?

I sense that you may not be ready to paint a complete picture of your fear, because the last line is stated as something quite distant from you, "of the fear of..." the actual fear is named but remains abstracted. You set it up, though, with the intense words, "cold, icy clutches" and I want more of that!

This is a powerful theme, and writing like this takes courage - keep it up!