Dream State Darkening

“Slowly we slept into our fears”

Ritwik

Some nights the dreams slip past like minnow,

dark and shadowy in the water.

I am frozen,

mud stuck and slow

with limbs like old trophies

bent, broken, scratched,

the polish flaking like old paint

till the wooden skeleton is left

with all its pitted fragility,

no more than a twig

shivering in the storm.

When I wake,

I am still the scarecrow.

Clothes tacked on in mockery of skin.

Here I know the birds

do not fear me.

Instead they will come in flocks

to peck at what is left

when the last of me is withered

and gone to dust.

Some nights the dreams slip past like minnow,

dark and shadowy in the water,

and dawn is brought on by blinking,

slow and succulent it bleeds through the glass,

an orange splitting from its skin.

In an echo of better days

the dreams swim deeper,

far enough that I can pretend to forget.

These are the moments of peace

between the nightmares.

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We’re slap bang in the middle of the DVerse Poets Pub’s two week break so I’m forced to search for inspiration elsewhere in the blog-a-sphere. Tonight I’ve stumbled into something that I’m thinking about making a feature.

The quote at the top is by a fellow poet/blogger and he kindly enough allowed me to use it as a jumping off point for a new poem. I’ve written poems drawing on inspiration from other poets before but this time I’d like to invite you to do the same. If there’s enough interest then I’ll chuck out the same challenge next Monday as well.

The aim is simple. Find a quote in a poem published here on WordPress. Use this as your starting point to write your poem, but please make sure to credit the original writer for their words if you include them anywhere in the post!

Then add a link to this post to create a pinkback or enter your piece using the InLinkz below.

Either way. Have fun writing!