Love and Dreams

Once there was a boy who slept
and dreamed persistent dreams
that, while he woke and wandered, kept
their shapes and thoughts and themes.
Each night he slept, he joined his friends
resuming halted games,
exploring all the turns and bends
of rivers with no names,
defeating monsters deep below,
ballooning skies above.
And as he grew, he came to know
a girl, and fell in love.
He said he’d take her to the world
he left for while awake;
for he’d no longer have her thirled
to one; but how to take
her when he woke? He didn’t know.
He looked deep in the lore
of both his worlds, but even so,
he needed to know more.
He asked the greatest scientists 
in this word to explain,
but all said dreams only exist
as phantoms of the brain.
He queried sages in his dream
of other worlds and planes,
and what they knew of ways between
but nothing could he gain.
He tried to pray, to meditate,
consulted stars and runes,
found temples lost to ages past,
and played binaural tunes.
He held her hand and spoke her name
as he began to drowse,
ate drugs and bugs, and all the same
frustration knit his brows.
Whatever method he designed,
she couldn’t leave his head. 
One night he chose to stay behind 
and she woke up instead.

© Sean Miner 2022