Decades Later in an Unstained Bed

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem

The dream erupted in the morning night

As nightdreams do.  It brought with it a beast,

A simulacrum made to give a fright.

So long removed, he almost seemed deceased

Despite his wavy hair, his teenage hair

Remaining in the depths of memory.  Now

Revived in something like a nightmare scare,

He moved about in trouble’s mind.  A vow

Subconscious neurons made to keep him forced

Away was broken in the haunting’s dark.

He rampaged in the shreds of sleep, divorced

From kisses as anti-lover shark.

  He clapped his hands beneath his armpit sweat.

    What once was angel worship swelled to threat.

~ Phillip Whidden

             Trapped and Sweaty

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem

The thought erupted in him as a dream,

Perhaps a nightmare.  First it seemed as mild

As flavor in vanilla ice cream, cream

The main ingredient.  A bit beguiled

He did not try to wake up but instead

Allowed the vision to continue there

Inside his innocent, untroubled bed

Until — the face included Ronnie’s hair,

That waviness and thickness like a wave,

A tidal wave encountered long ago.

Then desperately he tried to wake, to save

Himself from being overwhelmed.  But no.

  He couldn’t claw his way to waking life.

    He had to stay in long-gone loving strife.

~ Phillip Whidden