Though the earth accepts my footfalls
Offers bedrock for my foundations
The moving sky
Holds my fascination
Source of dreamy possibility

Though the earth accepts my footfalls
Offers bedrock for my foundations
The moving sky
Holds my fascination
Source of dreamy possibility
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”
I awaken
To the phantom
That is who I have become
Come hither, it whispers again
But I resist
The breeze with a whisper of its own
Admonishes me
Your place is here
On this solid earth
And the sand does feel good
Dimpled by my trail of steps
To where the ocean laps at my toes
There it is
Desire for a dream beyond my ready grasp
A tantalizing yet dangerous unknown
Stretches out beyond my ken to traverse
While I stand here
Content on my golden shore
To imagine a possibility
I may never pursue
I take off my shirt
The sun sighs, whispers again, yes, come. Come!
The next wave splashes foam onto my bare chest
Footsteps disappear beneath the ocean
He locks up
With a willful hope
A dream from another life
From another time
Perhaps the children
Will still be awake
With their sparkling eyes
So he hurries home
On a wish and a prayer
Even a drowsy hug is a tonic
But there I know she waits for me
Climb down, then sail, then climb again
Enwrapped within her arms
Perhaps by then the rain will come
Reverberant charms upon the tin
In rivulets down window pane
Lay with her in such sweet refrain
Flames crackling in the hearth
I feel the heat
Hot on my flesh
Alas it’s but the sun
It fuels a fire
Within my heart
Upon this rocky bluff
Come aboard
Set sail
Horizons calling
To journey beyond
I build castles on the beach
Realizing my dreams
Adventures unfolding
One bucket of sand at a time
While the boats
Tug gently at the lanyards
I’ve tied firmly to the shore