PAPER DREAMS
     

Was a time when dreams were real and life but tumbled words
Loving, hating, arguing upon the page
Then something changed and life and dreams swapped places
A cage of lines and symbols sprang around the dancing ones
And those who had been caged ran free
Sounds and smells and feelings touched living things and life knew death
For the first time

In the minds and memories of living things, dreams survived
Escaping from their prison of clouds from time to time and into paintings and writings
And other things made by human hand
Until the living things rejected dreams

The dreams conceived a plan by which they might regain the higher ground
Intense imaginings, longings, thirsts and fantasies conspired to build castles of paper
Moats of words
Poetic dragons, striking fear into the hearts of living things
That they might creep back into the caves and treehouses of illusion

And dreams became nightmares
The battle raged
Men walked the streets clutching their heads, or took to the bottle
Anything to drive the visions out
Prisoners were taken, and many died
Until at last a compromise was reached
Dreams and life would co-exist, and live together
For neither could exist without the other
And without one the other would cease to be

From now on, only certain living things would bear the dreams within their heads
The dream creatures placed representatives
Hidden agents
Muses of imagination and desire
In the physical world
Their role was to track down those with the dreams inside them
And tease them out, encourage them
Offer them food and warmth
That they might bring more of their kind into the world

Soon the world was once again full of poems and stories
Sculptures and inventions
Wonderful useless things
That gave life meaning, and meaning life
The muses had done their work well



© David Lowe 1996