Red Dust Dreams: A Gogyohka Sequence

embracing
a dream
that dances to the rhythm
of my heart
I jump to catch the moon for you

not seeing
we pass each other by
in corridors
my dreams
see you

the only way
back to my lost youth
the whispers
in my dreams
love poems to you

waking alone
in the middle of a night
distressed
you evade my glances
even in dreams

moonless nights
and blank dreams
measure
the distance between us
two lives apart

I waste
my life away
remembering your
touch entering my dreams
one poem after another

I cry
like a 3-year-old
for lost dreams
my manhood thrown
into the rapids of days gone by

the piercing cry
of my neighbor's cat
laden
with pangs of loneliness
the same in my dreams

awake
I dream of a butterfly
or does it dream of me?
either way
we both live in Samsara

July/August 2010 issue of Sketchbook