Machetes

Dreams come into your life. They come into your house.

They come carrying machetes and food.

They bring answers, and they bring demands.

Sometimes they fix the door. Sometimes they break

your favorite plate. They tell you great truths

and they often lie. They sell your soul, and buy it back.

You can ignore them in the same way you can

ignore a summons to court- that is to say, you cannot.

Dreams steal your enemies’ lovers

and sometimes find lovers for your friends.

Sometimes they turn lovers into enemies, and vice versa.

Dreams hijack your heart if you let yourself take any job

or marriage that is too boring. Dreams enter your uterus

but they do not always let you keep them there.

Sometimes they leave as blood streaming

down your legs, and these are stories the world

does not allow you to tell. Dreams are not always

happy, and people tend to only want happy stories.

Dreams tell you where to look, but not when.

Dreams do not always leave as blood. Sometimes

if they are left unattended too long, they

become tumors. Sometimes they climb mountains

with you and other times they just tell you

where the mountain might be. Dreams come into

your life, they come into your home, and you

had better listen. You are their servant. Never the

master. You can set the table, but they decide

when and if, they eat. Sometimes they share your

food, sometimes, the food is you. This is why

they carry machetes and come at night.

Author's Note

translation of my original written in Spanish, as a homework assignment for dream themed poetry.

Reviews

[Corset]

Got to walk softly and carry a big stick umm machete when it comes to nightmares. When the waking world looks more like the nightmare you had last night it's time for changes again. Dreams bring change, but what they are all dreaming about is really getting scary.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Love the part about setting the table but the dreams deciding when we eat.
Dreams do come true, but almost always at a price...
and the ones that carry machetes become the nightmares that haunt us...the dreams never realized.
good work, Marie.
j.