Something Worse

...what are dreams..

Something Worse...

"Is a dream a lie
if it don't come true?
Or is it something worse?"
-- Bruce Springsteen, 'The River'
***
Dreams are delicate,
fragile things.
Born on the wings
of midnight butterflies,
they are easily burnt alive
with the rising sun.
***
They are laid out,
staked spread eagled
on desert sands;
tortured for love's sake;
for dreaming
it just might be possible
to find love again.
***
And, for a brief moment,
a moment where rainbows
tasted like lemon drops,
as they shifted through their prisms;
where light's spectrum refracted,
then unleashed
multi-verses' dimensional shimmering
and your words' worlds
existed everywhere!!
***
For a moment...
***
But I was wrong.
This dream,
nothing but fool's illusion,
evaporates like summer morning mist
rising over a meadow
of Blue Bells.
It was a fantasy
I told myself.
***
As I lay
spread eagled to this dream,
an enraged Raven
with colorless eyes,
one I'm sure Poe knew well,
began peck, peck, pecking
at my heart
evermore!!
And,
as the pain intensified,
I knew this dream was
something worse...

~~redzone 7/27/14

Author's Note

...thanks for reading...

captcha: thigging, what the hell does this mean???!!!

Reviews

[kublakhan27]

First off, I gotta let you know that I have that album, and even though I don't listen to him a lot, he's an amazing storyteller that really has his finger on the pulse of human nature...anyways, it's your words that I'm here to read and talk about...the 'rainbow' stanza is lights-out brilliant, tasting like lemon drops before they shift through their prisms...I cannot think of a more apt analogy for the magnitude of just how devastating dreams can be, even the best ones...maybe more so the best ones actually...this is a dark piece (how could it not be? Poe's in it haha) that takes us to places we don't want to go...it tells us what we need to hear, not what we want to hear, which winds up being comforting somehow, but you don't realize it straight-up against the context you've laid out so vividly...great piece red, love this one :)

[Lydia Shutter]

“Midnight butterflies” such a lovely thought. Do dreams die in the morning light? I don’t think so. I think some of them might go to sleep for a while when we awaken, but there are ever in our psyches. They are there waiting to flutter their wings again and tickle our subconscious thoughts. “Rainbows tasted like lemon drops” oh my oh my oh my! I just love the innocence of that line. Love the reference to “The Raven” and the onomatopoeia of “peck-peck-pecking”. When a dream turns into a nightmare, what can we do? Do we allow it to overtake us? Do we lie there, spread-eagled and resign ourselves to the darkness? So much to consider in this “nice” poem. Curt, you have outdone yourself with this one. Lydi**

[Frieda P]

WOW dear Curt, you've outdone yourself with this one, you knew the butterfly references would get me...but it only got better from there, so many lines to cherish here, I can't really say which was more affecting....this is better than Poe in my book.

And, for a brief moment,
a moment where rainbows
tasted like lemon drops,
as they shifted through their prisms;
where light's spectrum refracted,
then unleashed
multi-verses' dimensional shimmering
and your words' worlds
existed everywhere!!

Par excellence! 100/100 lemon drop rainbows with butterflies on top