Sogno Cattivo - Dylan Melone

I licked my lips
of a golden goblet
and fell the long distance to solace and sleep
and through my open windows feathers did drift
in with the rain and the cold and the haunting breath
trees grasping with voices that rasp
on, through my own throat
their faces painted
from the faces I’ve known
they tangled my limbs with their own and threw me
among the brambles
and creeping in were the beasts who crawled on five legs
dragging their bedraggled faces along the floor
for shame had eaten them in yore
but ever here they stand
perhaps on all fours
but standing nonetheless,
each one opened its grizzly mouth through which
drool oozed
yellow teeth hung
and a long searching tongue slowly flicked fro and to,
staining my face with bestial slobber;
to my face they spoke
“the night will eat you whole”
a long gurgling breathe was took
“the beach will send you away”
I looked into the sickly bulging eyes
“and the horizon will flood your lungs”
I brushed bark and leaves from my sleeve
turned and walked toward the private path from which I had arrived
my feet squelched through the Mud,
the Mud which claimed my shoes
I sank an inch deeper for every step I did take
another inch to bind me
entwined me
and draw blood with his grasp
and on I strode into the Night,
my Jacket now thrown over my Back,
I picked my way to the Shore
spotting the spotlight
which dragged at the sky
hooks were rained down and planted in my skin,
pulling me close
and initiating my course: North
an’ North I did walk
as the Mud turn’d to sand
shells speckled the floor
leaving laces and soft letters written from warm hearts
carved into my feet
and soon I found light
Dawn’s light
in Night’s bowel
and this light showed what the dark had hid
beside a hung man,
a small skiff
had been hung at a dock
touched tortured tested by time.
the branch which held the man’s weight was sallow and distraught
just as the man’s face
before it had become the half digested mess it was
the boat seemed strong,
so I took an oar in each hand
pushing off from the dock
then raising a hand
I waved goodbye to Night, Dawn, and Mud
and set off toward an island
which none had charted
the wet splashed my hand,
chills bit through my shirt,
-a shame I’d left my Jacket with the hung man, I thought he’d like to be warm for his last month on Earth-
the unyielding water ran down my back,
shrinking my spine
and plastering my clothes with it’s colossal icy breathe
my eyes grew dim as I neared new land
gulls began to gather
not for I, but for the long-awaited land
I rode a bit farther and then
a beat of a creature swooped down at me
just a small bit of flesh-I assured myself-
I braced myself for each beak and sea-weathered claw
knowing I must make it to the Horizon
as my scalp grew less and less,
almost as bald as the man,
I leapt from the skiff
and into the sea
hoping for protection from the sharp teeth –oh, how my leprous skin pained me-
my words of anger bubbled and swelled
my curses rang in some distant well
and my lungs
slowly became filled.