on this night I had a dream.
conjurations by the fairies’ midwife it would seem,

bringing me sweet visions
and courted by heart-strung decisions,

swimming in soft swan feathers
while chasing him bound by their divine tethers.

in the morning when I wake,
the fog of courtship clears that memory made by mistake.

then I shall cut the cord and cringe,
taking her sickly medicine from a sharp syringe.

i painfully pull out his gilded arrow
and shake the nightmare out of my bone and marrow,

purging misty pansy dew
and wipe my eyes to be cleansed of you.

i have tossed and churned in heat,
covered in salt and musk of a thin stained bedsheet.

somewhere, you rest inside different arms,
so I’ll turn over and wish for another’s charms.

– Jeremy Hallstrom