Nightmare

Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that, like The Color of Pomegranates and “City That Does Not Sleep,” incorporates wild, surreal images. Try to play around with writing that doesn’t make formal sense, but which engages all the senses and involves dream-logic.

Nightmare

Always, always I am falling

in a deep abyss

in slowest of slow motion

flailing arms and silent screams

I wake up sweating

heart pounding loud

snakes of suspicion slithering

up my chest choking the chipmunks

in my brain always,

always I slide back into the partisan dream

showing sepia-toned snapshots of swirling snowflakes

transforming into ugly beasts

exhorting me to finish my exam

and I realise with a start

I submitted an empty sheet.