Argument: … about dreaming.“Dreaming
is a trial
of gross cynicism to me –
what to believe in there?
in its pictures?
“Last night,
for example,
I dreamt David took a blue flask
of water and drank it
in one and burst.
“And then,
suffer!, the bits
gathered themselves into the form
of not one midget knight
but several.
“And then
all knights lined up,
revealed themselves equivalent
in height to burst David
as once-he’d-been.
“And then,
just inbetween
each midget knight, a snake appeared
and stood on the one legs
their tails became.
“All cleared
the decks of knights
with one swift gobble and action –
no more knights, nor David,
and only hissing.
“Belief
crashed at the hiss.
I interrogated the snakes:
‘how can you go and eat
these midget knights?
“’Unreal
each one of you
and I am dreaming your hissing
and standing one-legged
in this dreamspace.’
“I knew
they were unreal –
each snakeface grinning an ocean,
on full midget belly
and satisfied.”
A short pause.
“Further,
two nights ago,
I dreamt David before the King
‘Dear King,’ he asked, ‘one thing
I want to ask.
“’You knight
those bright, young men
(old men, women and children too)
as they can never knight
themselves, you see.
“’Tell me:
who knights the King
who cannot knight himself and who
kneels down before him then?
Please tell me this…’
“Thunder!
The King stood up
from his throne, fiercely brandishing
the sword, the snake, the tool
of dull knighting.
“The fool
knelt before him
(who before whom?) and thus received
‘knighthood and dignity’
in short swordstabs.
“The two
then vanished clear
at this point – the veneer ripped off
and force-fed to the snake
for varnishing.
“I knew
just then, the flaw
in logic in this dream, absurd
it was to feed the snake
for varnishing!”
A short pause, the starlings mutter and sing mimetic songs.
“Again,
three nights ago,
I dreamt David compiling lists
of all the qualities
a knight displays.
“’Honour
filled loyalty,
respect and bravery serving
of damsels to love them
and to rescue.
“’Unites
calm modesty
with dignity, gentility
with determination,
grace with firmness.
“’Noble
features, a form
commensurate with a hero,
the hero’s nose, shoulders
carrying strength.
“’Brute strength
necessary
when that brute strength is required,
a swift kick to the teeth
when it’s asked for.
“’A bow
to his betters;
an equal face to his equals;
throw some friendly disdain
to low sequels.’
“Blah blah
and on his list
grew – arrogance and sympathy,
paucity, poverty,
grit, firmity.
“He wrote
the list longhand
on the black body of a snake;
a quick scratch of scalpel
fixed the mistakes.
“The snake
turned its hissing
to writer David and asked him
‘what of those other knights,
the midget knights?’
“’No thing,’
replied David
‘like a midget could be a knight.
Now shoosh and leave me be
to scratch out words.’
“’Yes, but
the fact still stands
that one midget knight existed,
his height less than twelve hands;
is he listed?’
“David
looked to the list
and found no entry for midgets.
‘No snake, none – fuck – this list
is incomplete.’
“The snake
curled to its tail,
ouroborosed itself inside
and ate, and ate, and ate
its tail wholesome.
“The list
self-combusted
within the belly of the beast
and I knew the failure
of this last dream.
“A lie
to say the snake
would trap poor David in a trap
so easily broken
and unspoken.”
A short pause, the starlings mutter and sing mimetic songs, stealing what they must and throwing it back in a style to be wasted and washed-up and –out and watered to the birds.
“Dear Fame,
Celebrity,
whatever name you choose to have,
you dream with the dreamers
and those who dreamt.
“A dream
is a future,
and all dream for the tomorrows
where Celebrity sleeps
and creeps, and creeps.”
Lathy stood shadowed at the sky, a moon threatening to rise, and looked to the road and the road to his eyes – the day came changing, the change of the day took Lathy and his squire, his narrator, away.
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