Slumbering Ghazal

Skipping down childhood’s street in a dream.
Two teams of angels compete in a dream.

He toils through lunch, brings undone work home.
Boss whispers, You’re obsolete in a dream.

The young woman murdered for not wearing
a burka lies in the heat. In a dream,

sand stings her daughter’s eyes. Men pursue her.
Slow in awake-life, she’s fleet in a dream.

Body parts surround the general. Blood
in the sky, blood at his feet. In a dream,

buzzards recite riddles as they circle.
He lies in a field of wheat in a dream.

Noseless animals the Taliban killed
wag tails of bone to war’s beat in a dream.

A rusty key lands in your hand. Open
the door. You know whom you’ll meet. In a dream,

Rocky Horror characters morph to wolves.
Audience members throw meat. In a dream,

sex sometimes. Pets often. Once she spurred on
a horse to a winning heat in a dream.

We’ve all gone to the posh party naked
or been caught wrapped in a sheet in a dream.

Today’s teens push back on media tropes.
I sat, screen-drunk, in my seat. In a dream,

a manic pixie dream girl wakes up my
life — naked swims, whiskey neat. In a dream,

passport’s found, then lost again. Ticket wet,
now burnt. Obstacles repeat in a dream.

Worms in the cake. Bread that vanishes when
touched. Hunger. No food to eat. In a dream,

wishes, fears, unfinished bits of day.
What do you need to complete in a dream?

Though he asks each night, his mother rarely
comes. Those few contacts, so sweet. In a dream,

unchosen lives unspool. The jock is a
scholar, the priest a card cheat in a dream.

Stone finds the perfect poem, in Yiddish,
scrawled on a drugstore receipt in a dream.