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1st Street

I had one sweet dream
To find a lighted 2 a.m. window
On a careful human holiday
When the leaves left nervous imprints
On the walls of shrugging apartment buildings
And the payphones hung like jilted graverobbers
Beneath the beebuzzing glow of the licorice neon

I had one sweet dream
To be granted a sighing reprieve
To the seasick motion
Of the mind grown grave with want;
Desires that sag like airless parachutes
Dreams so formless they sputter into spoilage
Spirits that drift like tightfisted spinsters

I had one sweet dream
To rake my fingers across a skin so fierce
That the celebrations would never cease
And the windowed light playing on the field of her
Would never frost over into bland recognition
A blue swipe of flame grown stagnant and stuck
Never turn from a prayer into a dull complaint

I had one sweet dream
To ease gradually into the candied past
While still elevating into the future's gape
Peek smilingly into the limp screen of oblivion
Or shake with fire into the damp fields of illusion
With one sneaking finger dancing toward the stronghold
The shield that glares downward with eyes of cringing iron

On nights like this the voices whirlwind
Syllables strain in murky pacts
Sputtering with uncertain future
And bellowing in loving combination

And they say too,

They say one thing:

I had one sweet dream

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