In the dream
I entered a cavernous space
Light streamed in through windows
Set in an impossibly high wall

It curved
All around me
The inner workings
The floor boards

I almost expected to see
Dali and a squadron of flying cats
So odd a place this was
Until I realized
It was me

I was inside myself
The walls and ceiling
Were my own skin
Seen from the inside
Pipes and beams my bones

But inside
Where my consciousness
Now found itself
Was a vast cavern
Of  emptiness

A fear gripped me
That all I had ever been
Was a sometimes pretty
But entirely hollow
Vessel

I wept
Cried out
Tried to shake out the dream
And wake up
Until…

I smelled the rain in the air
Heard the droplets
Tapping the leaves
Outside my window
Felt the cool of the night…

On my body
Outside the vessel
Palpating it
To see if there was any truth
To the hollowness

None that I could feel
“But you know you are”
Came a voice
From deep inside
Ringing with echoes

The fear, again
The tears, again
And a sorrow, full
As the cavern
Was hollow

Then another voice spoke
With the sibilant promise
Of a whisper in my ear
“A hollowness waiting
To be filled”