The Story of a Dreamer
Every night when his parents fell into dream
Land, the boy crept through the house
And into the bathroom. The tears
Dampened his cheeks and he prayed his secrets
Would remain hidden until the next time his shadow
Stole into the moonlit room.
The tiles that covered the entire room
Were cold at the touch and made him dream
Of his warm bed. But the boy was a shadow
And he belonged in this crumbling house
Full of broken secrets,
Unending despair and the tears
That threatened to drown him every day. His tears
Were only visible inside this room.
Crying in public warned them of his secrets
And they could make even his happiest dream-
A small girl and her fathers running around a warm house-
Seem like the darkest pit of hell filled with menacing shadows.
He rummaged through the medicine cabinet, his shadow
Bouncing off the walls and dripping like tears
Onto the ground floor of the collapsing house.
The bottle he was searching so frantically for fell into the room’s
Cold, white sink and he swore softly, seeing his dream
Dissolve into a lost secret.
It was floating amid his many other secrets
That could only be let out when hidden by the shadows
In this room. He dreamed
Of the day when they wouldn’t cause tears
To stream down his face. There would be no room
For error this time. This awful house
Would be the last place he saw. The house
That held the pills that would make him forget his secrets.
They would be forever absorbed into the tiles of the dim room.
The pills spilled into his hand and the shadows
Shook with memories of the dry tears
He shed as his once whole body became but a dream.
The house whimpered as it watched him become a mere shadow
And it vowed to keep his secrets and dried tears
Within the lightening room until the world escaped its dream.