Without The Dream Map

Without The Dream Map
© Surazeus
2023 07 04

The button I must press to activate 
the word machine that crackles in my brain 
attracts vampires who try to regulate 
how I translate weird dream spells of the rain, 
so I disperse robotic body parts 
with rotten apples in old broken carts. 

Submerging in the slimy frog-splashed pond, 
I retrieve the lost sword Excalibur 
so the Lady of the Lake and I bond 
while measuring systems of the biosphere 
for mission to cause the waste land to bloom 
with purple lilacs by the empty tomb. 

The lonely widow in the black lace dress, 
who clutches leather book of fairy tales, 
pauses dazed on Bridge of Forgetfulness 
to ponder mystery of the billowed sails 
that bring ships to lush Isle of Avalon 
crowded with refugees from Babylon. 

Before Osiris reigned on hill of song 
he herded sheep on timeless river shore 
till Set scribed tablets scoring right and wrong 
in bloody coup to control the bookstore 
through which official story of the state 
programs our minds to accept divine fate. 

Electra climbs high ziggurat of skulls 
to find Orpheus chained to the gold throne 
where he prophesies reign of greedy fools 
till second coming of the three-eyed crone 
who leads nationalists into logic trap 
from which none escape without the dream map. 

Yet when Osiris wakes in apple grove 
to find Ophelia dancing in lace gown 
he tries to tell her she has won his love 
to save her from the fate that she will drown 
till grim Orpheus sweeps her off her feet, 
lamenting how they never got to meet. 

True love connects across vast centuries 
with scarlet thread of fate we cannot cut, 
so we fight tyranny of monarchies, 
then seek wisdom from blind girl in the hut 
who sings with voice that makes our minds expand 
when refugees from world wars crowd the land. 

Without the dream map showing ancient myths 
we must invent new legends for our time 
which visionaries carve on monoliths 
when Cinderella wakes at the door chime 
before her prince assassinates the clown, 
who rules in his place as the psychic clone.