In A Dream, You Saw Me

In a mystical dream, you were walking in the night; your hands trailing the cold rails of an unknown stairway, your eyes adjusting to the darkness of the hallway until you reach a room gilded gold. The door is unhinged with its broken latch hanging luring you to step in. You were curious but hesitated – one part interested, one part afraid to walk right in. On my lost nights, I am trying my hardest to hold all strings together. You watch from the see-through curtain as though somehow pulled in, as though tied to my string, and you find yourself on the ground shaking. You find yourself praying I would never shatter.

You woke up and went on to planting dreams and being the city king but the mystery and the girl clothed in gold never once left you. Life happened and months flew by and I too continued on with my life, living by my own ways, singing in barren meadows and dancing in lonely rain, waking up and going back to bed in a world where a lot is different yet just the same.

Every night since, you wished to have that same dream. Every night since, you wished to see me. You filled your thoughts with dark hallways and spiral staircases and a princess in bloom waiting on you to save her. And once more on a dusty, hazy, terrifyingly smoky night, you did. You were expectant, you were thrilled. You repeated the familiar motions with certainty and clarity, planning in your head the sure knock on the door and the words that you will not fail to say, this time.

“I will build you an island, where every day is different. I will build you a ship, for us to live in. Our days will be tender, our nights will be sweet. I want to dispell this sadness from your eyes, I want to lift the weight of this world, will you take my hand?” You whispered promises of the ocean and trees and hopeless dreams of whimsy and all that we could be. You told me secrets of the wind and my shadows dancing on your street and you showed me all the time that I was wasting by being sad, being scared. You showed me all the energy I was wasting plotting revenge on old haunts living in my head. You showed me all the many worlds existing outside of me. 

I was carried by the seeds that you planted in my mind. I never expected my heart to take flight. Now I’m higher than I’ve ever been and you have somehow become this mighty dream closing in. A wondrous dream becoming real. For the first time, the heavy cloaked veil atop my head has been lifted. I can see you eye to eye. I can feel the heat of your skin. I can smell the sweetness seeping in.

“If morning comes and separates us yet again, here is a picture for you to keep. If I can never find you in another dream like this, remember this ship. Remember these words out of my lips. Past my time, past envious lifetimes, I will be waiting there. Find this beach, on a cove of a remote island we’ve dreamed, and there will be a ship. Grandiose. Everlasting. Just standing, waiting for you to meet me. And I will be there watching you run to me.”