C. Mallor

One step forward

Two steps back

The backward ones feel so much bigger

Having seen ahead to where they come from

I try to walk slower, keep my pacing, my eyes focused on the spot

No matter how hard I try I still fall back

I’ve had such strange dreams these past few nights.

I was at a diner with strangers who were my closest friends.

I spilled a glass of water on the coffee table and was terrified someone would find out.

I wrapped myself in layers of wool blankets and couldn’t get warm.

A man I’d never seen before kissed me on the lips and I fell in love with him.

I stood by an open window in my bedroom and watched my neighbors barbecuing as it snowed; they looked up and waved at me to join them, but I was getting smaller and smaller and eventually couldn’t see as high as the window anymore.

The alarm goes off.

My dreamworlds vanish.

Waking me knows just what to do.

No time to finish this poem.

I don’t want to be late.