Poem: "In Dreams / I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night"

IN DREAMS (London HLU 9676)

/ I HAD TOO MUCH TO

DREAM LAST NIGHT

(Reprise RS 20532)

sleeping with the Sony TV on,
images feed subliminally
into my head
splicing & looping
dream on dream

3-prong plug,
white plastic casing,
copper wiring sleeved in colour,
electrical charge flows through
printed circuits into cathode,
radiation of particles
across 625-line screen
assembling dreams
drip drip drip in
a reverse sweat
of images

I’m naked
& this is my penis, I lie
in a bed of silk orchids
caged in high-domed glass,
an obsidian knife bites my wrist
open          but no blood,
instead, I grow a vagina
that begins above
the heel of my thumb
and doesn’t end until
the curve of my elbow,
white gauze shapes that
may be fish (dolphins?)
dart in darkness beyond

splice & loop
dream on dream

I wake with a chaffinch
lying on its back beside me,
it’s dead
prising back its beak I see
4 small lead soldiers
on either side of
a snake’s tongue

I’m naked
& this is my vagina,
I lie on a bed of
dead chaffinches caged
in high-domed obsidian,
for a moment the chaffinch
speaks at me of low-price offers
& supermarket trolleys…

I ejaculate
silk orchids
sleeved in colour
that drip drip drip
in a sweat of
images


Published in:
‘SF SPECTRUM no.8’
(UK – December 1985)
‘BOUILLABAISSE no.2’
(USA – November 1992)