Question

To what bedroom does the soul go
when the body carries us across
sleep’s private waters?

Is there a vase of flowers there,
tulips’ flaming boats?

(I’m rowing to a place
where my thoughts can clear.
My head is giving off a mist.)

Is it cozy there, like
a hundred hand-stitched quilts?

Or is it built of cold
catastrophe, of war that divides
a husband and wife?

An eyelid flickers, a trap
door snaps open, and the clear

pink skeleton of the dreaming
soul flies

                out— 

Susan Kelly-DeWitt | Melpomene
Contents | Mudlark No. 46 (2012)