Dreams Forever Awake

Dreams Forever Awake by Odin Roark A father dreams of getting it right finally succumbs to sweat drenched nightmares Somewhere he stumbles about to clear the room guitar video games posters Broad stairs to the garage once of stable hardwood now rickety rotted support creaking of memories crushed once plush carpet soft with warmth now but cold cinders beneath his feet Sensory deprivation smiles releases starving glimpses of love once bathed by generous moonlight spilling from window to banister to door to now barren concrete Here children's eyes once visualized what freedom's wheels would be like The father wanders outside stares blankly on the gray-white night reflecting off algae encrusted pool now with but deflated basketball adrift Through surrounding weeds and shrubs GI Joe action figures shimmer their loneliness as well staring like him at the pool's granite carved beachhead imagination's vast ocean of backyard fantasy now quiet make-believe war since reduced to the calm of real battles lost jungle rot's toxic fumes saturating all No prisoners taken History The scuffling of his slippers rake the humid night's heaviness like sandpaper dragging across memory's fine threaded tapestry Lying down among the overgrowth he peers through broken limbs crumbling leaves moon water house Eyes squeezed shut deliver regret's creative gallery a lifetime installation perhaps never meant to be walked through Yet... Such are musings sometimes destined to be but nightmares while dreams remain forever awake in the heart