Dream No.27 Serpent Coat

This morning, I was flipping through my poetry files looking for something different to read at the next ‘Right Night’ this coming Wednesday. I had already selected one out of the Dreams and Wanderings file and printed it off in a fairly big font, as I usually do to read aloud. Then I noticed this one that I don’t think I have read before, so I printed it off also to maybe read another time.  Steve will be out all day today because he is packing a container and I had thought that I might slope off to the cinema down by the beach this afternoon and catch a movie that Steve most firmly refuse to go  and see.  So being the horribly honest soul I am, I am posting this to give me the time to skive off for the 2. 30pm show! 

Dream No.27 Serpent Coat 

I was putting away a small sports clothes wash

Having taken them out of the dryer

These are my most used most useful

Light weight sports coats

One is bright blue

The other though pretty similar

Is luminous visi-pink

The both have hoods

I am smoothing them

Ready to fold them in three in the usual way

To them put them away in the cupboard to stay

With other sports kit ready for the next wearing

As I smooth it in my hand toward to hood

It changes as is lies in my hands

And becomes a snake

A very large snake

This is not good

The two colours have blended now

Day glo pink down the centre of its back

And bright blue all along the sides

It grows exponentially as I hold it

Although I am an older lady

I have no fear that it will attack

I still manage to hold this enormous creature

Though it looks like something

That David Attenborough would show

As needing ten strong men to hold

I realise that this is impossible

And that it must be a dream

Not just from the obvious weight

But because I am not in the least phased by it

Holding the writhing monster I feel quite bold

And actually find the texture of it pleasant.

I look around wondering where to put it down

And find, just by my side

A crystal stopper the size of a chair

As broad, as wide

As I pull out the stopper

I know that this also would in reality

Be far too heavy for me to hold

Still I lay the stopper to one side

Still holding the head end of the serpent

Firmly and comfortably under my free arm

The opening leads into a fantastic crystal compartment

And I lead the snakes head into this space

And it goes in willingly

As is slithers and slides into this place

I see just how enormous the creature now is

Since the crystal container is the size of a large room

And is oval shaped

About ten metres long and five metres wide

But only just high enough for the snake

This brightly coloured behemoth

Seems perfectly happy moving slowly around

Passing and re-passing

Its own great length and girth

Over and over again

I replace the stopper and go downstairs

Though previously there were no stairs

They are but newly found

Now as I enter the room

I see that the crystal container is the ceiling now

And the serpent gazes benignly down at me

Through the glass don’t ask me how

I wonder how it can be content

Contained as it is

Even in beautiful crystal surroundings

I tear my fascinated gaze away

From the writhing effect on the ceiling sent

And see that I am in a beautifully furnished

Spacious thickly carpeted oval room

An oval office

 

The Oval Office!

 

I recognise it from TV

The huge carved desk

The bronze statue of a cowboy on a bucking horse

The portrait of George Washington on the wall I see

The two sumptuous settees’ facing each other

The flags at the bay windows behind the desk

And other fine antiques of course

The POTUS is not present

Nobody is there but me

I walk around the desk

Trailing my hand over the surface

I feel some of the fine carving

That was hand chiselled

By a craftsman on the cupboard doors of the desk

I am absolutely certain

That it is the Oval Office

But then

I see my very own

Marble Art Deco clock

It is standing on a sideboard

My examination has quickly shown this

I am totally certain that it is

MY clock

My brow furrows trying to work out

Why my heavy marble clock

Is on the sideboard

In the office of the President of the United States

Why am I in the office of Barack Obama

And not arrested!

Alarms ring!

My husband puts his hand gently on my shoulder and say’s

“Time to get up darling”.