After dreaming
Before waking
Cinders of an extinguished fire
Dot my eyelids, then
Escape, leaving
Fissures in memory.
Guests gone with no forwarding address
Haunt the dawn.
If stars could talk
Jar us with a bright
Kind of language
Light up our synapses
Melt our dull whims
Now and then
open to a cosmic view
Perhaps they could answer
Questions unspoken.
Reason alone
Stifles possibility
Tethered by cause and effect
Unable to dream
Viable only in confinement.
What if set free
Xed from the ordinary
You could swim in clouds
Zip from Arcturus to Betelgeuse?
V. Jane Schneeloch has been either writing or encouraging others to write for most of her life. Retired from teaching English at East Hartford High School, she has led writing workshops for youths, senior citizens, and incarcerated women. Her poems are published in Common Ground Review and Compass Roads among others.
