In My Dreams

Last night, within the realm of dream,
Every knee must bow
But there was kindness abundant
For those in the position now

Yet there, on our knees,
Perpetually hobbling
Right and left
Incessantly squabbling

We argued whether
You began Your work in man
Because we bowed, or if
We bowed because You began

And all the fighting made me sad
I withdrew to higher ground
Where I saw You never began,
But always abounded

Changeless through all
Every moment sketched
By Your palm
And a calmness in all You etch.

Then I awoke in a body
Heavy under the effect of sin
Old and tired and broken
At the hands of men

I slipped again into dream
In a foreign land, under no conviction
A uniform led me alone to a cell
Though we both knew he had no jurisdiction

He asked me if I would wait inside-
I was too tired to speak my release
Tired of the fighting, of being alone,
Tired of yearning for peace

So I waited in a cell
I knew would never hold me
I searched my depths for any part
Of me that could still speak boldly

But as I sat, the ground began to teem
With mites, and lice, and parasites,
And every nasty, crawling thing
That lives upon the bite.

Still tired, but I knew it was imminent
That I would leave my little cell
I wouldn’t be allowed to wait there forever,
As all of time would tell

And I inhaled to tell,
And I awoke.