Jake's Flea Market

there was dream previous to this

dream dreamt 
in the black ink 
depths of the sea
where creatures never seen
swim through the deeper sleep

dream not remembered as i rise
     float upward
     almost break surface with my face
     wake almost

sea water filters
     dims the light that enters from above

by which i read the parchment coloured
dream of sand

read the footprints of an adult
female that meet
with the smaller footprints of a child where i
     stepped back
     away from the pregnant mother
     away from the club she swung
     like she’d swing at vulture
     at hyena

i begin
to sink away from the light

look across the lion coloured
dream of plains

     sweat salts the eyes

     heat wavers the horizon

     blue deepens the sky
     it isn’t clouded by signs

     the sun is relentless

     my skin is red as meat 
     of zebra freshly killed

     raw it peels
     reveals it isn’t good to be this naked

i continue
to sink away from the light

search the sunburnt
dream of grass
     burnt to the colour of sun
     for grass pressed flat
by the weight of the pregnant mother’s sleep

silence answers
the sound that has always summoned her

     eeeee

i call again

     eeeee

hooves free
clouds of dust from the earth

impala bound
to a distance safe
to turn and look back

migration of wildebeest
stampede to a distant plain
like i’m a flame in the long grass

     i’m a stranger here

     i’m scared

i continue
to sink away from the light

sink
through a fleeting thought
in which i am the calf of buffalo
newborn in the stare
of sudden lion in the tawny grass


sink
into a fleeting dream of twilight
in which vast shadows open wide
the plains and consume me
     again into black
     unrippled sleep