Wilderness Dreams

Calm body of lake between mountains

 

In the dream he had, he tells me

I am sitting on the front steps, my mother

The step below, leans against my legs.

We are laughing, the way we did, mouths

Open, shoulders quaking.

 

It is a dream I’d like to have.

 

Then he says, a man steps in

Leans over and kisses me.

 

This too is a dream I’d like to have.

 

What love doesn’t want physical

Expression? What love doesn’t want

touch? What love doesn’t want?

 

I head out into the morning

For my run.  Can someone else’s

Dream be my own?

 

Does the rabbit dream the crow?

 

The mist hovering on the lake

The same color as the moon.

 

Poem by Julia Singer

Julia Klatt Singer is the poet in residence at Grace Nursery School. She is co-author of Twelve Branches: Stories from St. Paul, (Coffee House Press), author of In the Dreamed of Places, (Naissance Press), A Tangled Path to Heaven, Untranslatable, (North Star Press), and her most recent chapbook, Elemental (Prolific Press). Audio poems from Elemental are at OpenKim (https://openkim.org/), as the element Sp. She’s co-written numerous songs with composers Craig Carnahan, Jocelyn Hagen, and Tim Takach.