Hallways too long, behind us now,

it has become hard to swallow, and the sound of your own voice is now  enough to make you cringe,

    ignoring all these warning signs and the flashing lights,

and ignoring the sound of your own voice

as well as  the number for poison control.

 The band playing in the                              background,

and  lightning strikes during the day, in the foreground,

in these dreams,

I can still hear the sound   of the footsteps like raindrops,

in these dreams,

like balloons popping  after coming into contact with  violent ceiling fans,

or scraping against the popcorn ceiling,,,,,,

But this room is too crowded and this house is too crowded,

and the popcorn ceiling is the perfect shade of blinding white.

in these dreams.

        There are too many birds on the wire outside,

I will find a new house, with a new voice and new birds on new wires.

I want to dream  new dreams of snakes chasing other snakes,

and I want to skip song after song after song

and not be penalized for it.

,,,, its been a long time since I have seen any snakes,

                    Let me be exhausted, let the snakes  instead come to me in my sleep.

                                                  Let me be clear,

There will be a new band too, and they will be in  all of my future dreams.

And new actors to replace the old, tired ones.

And they will drown out the echoes of  my footsteps

and your footsteps,

and the hissing snakes,  that are only just now visible,

and the ope            ning of doors,

                                         that hisssssssssssss behind you, in their own way.

                          This new  band will play all the hits,

but  I’ll end up in the garage, out of reach of the stars and the music and the streetlights,

                                                                 unpacking it all,

the good silverware and  the drum sets you didn’t remember buying and never played.

Carefully  laying furniture on its side like a wounded animal,

                                                                                                                                     too carefully, perhaps.

I am careful not to break any of the nice dishes, though.

                                             At least this dream has windows, and skylights even.

                           This is the new place where I can  dream  now , and I can even see the  sky from here,

in these dreams,

           I feel the ocean breeze blowing through my hair ,

in these dreams,

                                     or maybe its blowing in  from over the hilltop,

all  of this beauty,  suddenly compromised.

All of this  beau….anyways.

                                              All  this before I make  contact with the ceiling fan.