ESCAPING FROM THE MOUNTAIN
One:
the overweight young woman
hurries down the mountainside road,
her dark shoulder length hair
billowing in the breeze like a sail
she manages to heft -- and sometimes
drag -- several bundles along with her,
leaving behind a trail of urgency
as she looks worriedly over her
hunched shoulder: all she wants
is to escape this mountain at last
her face flashes in sudden panic:
they've found her! and she rushes
onto a dirt path off to the side
of the tarmac ribbon, tossing her
bundles ahead of her behind bushes
and praying her own bulk, too,
won't be seen from the road
but, it's too late, that old family jalopy
stops short at the head of the path
where she stands desolated
by dashed hope again,
as usual the old junk heap is filled
to bursting with family, and their friends
and their friends, arms and legs and heads,
and even butts hanging out of every
window as they wave and yell at her
and also as usual they don't seem to care
that the thoroughly rusted aqua belly
of their car sits like a robotic hen
right on the road surface,
its suspension long since shot
they look like a scraggly little peak
themselves, she thinks (as she begins
to pick up her bundles and walk towards
them sighing in resignation) only
they're more like a mountain that follows
her around and won't let her go,
let her be herself, let her be something
other than squashed by their oblivious
enthusiasm into this manic group
that she's never fit in with
no, she's all too readily homogenized
in their eyes simply by their declaration
that she belongs with them, yet she remains
painfully, even life threateningly angular
and sharp-edged inside herself where real
life starts and ends and keeps trying
to wrestle free of their
collective grip ...
Two:
... and she almost forgets to acknowledge
rescue when it finally comes,
so much so that she can't even recall
how or when it happened,
she only remembers when she sees
his face, a soft light
in her stunned memory
she turns toward one of her sisters
(the one who'd long ago freed herself
of the weight of their mountainous
family) giving her a puzzled look that her
sister returns with a nod, as if to say,
yes, and have you thanked him?
she turns back to her rescuer --
their father -- but a much younger version
of him and not at all his coloring or build
for he's blond, not much taller than she,
stocky, and soft in aspect, even as he
appears to be quite strong
he also looks anxious to move on someplace
else, even as she puts her arms out to him
for a hug that does not happen
and whispers "You'll never know
how grateful I am"
his pleased aspect warms her thoroughly,
even as he moves surely and quietly on
like the passing over of a beloved soul,
leaving her to wonder what this freedom
will be worth once all the separations
and losses have been counted
[free verse poem on a dream of 11-25-17. Ah well, talk about wish fulfillment, ey? BTW, as far as I know neither of my (half) sisters has "escaped" our family mountain. Nor would they want to, or even think of it as a mountain and/or something to be "escaped." So this sister here is metaphorical, an encouragement from my dream world that "escape" is possible. Or maybe, she represents some aspects of me that have already broken out of jail. Or, are about to? Are capable of doing so? (More wish fulfillment thinking ...) BTW, I pretty much had to break this into two sections because I have no recall of what the dream transition was between those two aspects of it. If there even was one. And none that I tried to write into the dream worked and so the two sections. Photo "Waiting for Dawn" (11-26-17 005v2f) by Roswila]
PLEASE NOTE: in most browsers you can click on the above image for a larger version. Also, the photo accompanying a post is not necessarily meant to illustrate it, but to reflect some small, even slant aspect of the verse, similar to Japanese haiga (illustrated haiku).
There are many other sorts of posts on this blog. I indicate which are about or influenced by dreams. Some non dream focused posts are book reviews, "regular" poems (some by other writers), scifaiku, writing exercises, Tarot haiku, photos, haiga, and so on. However, most of those are in much older posts. There's a listing by month going back to early 2006, at the end of the sidebar.
* * * *
until next time, keep dreaming,
[a/k/a Patricia Kelly]
**** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”). Roswila's other blog (dedicated to her photos only, i.e. no poetry or other writing; daily post); TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.
