Imaginary Hollywood

The set was on when she fell asleep

 

In black and white

 

a woman  was gliding through a garden in period clothes

 

and a child was touching

 

 a pane of wavy  glass with the flat of her hand

 

Another woman

 

was all but flying down a spiral stairs in a flouncy gown

 

that showed off

 

the cut of her breasts and a lone golden strand

 

of hair playing at her ear

 

It was because of…she didn’t want to grow any older

 

her resistance

 

was strong the dream’s spores hung in the air

 

in another room

 

a parent was dying in short shallowing breaths

 

she needed

 

somewhere to put all of that emotional excess

 

that’s the way

 

it was when she began talking in fake accents 

 

sleeping late

 

as a lake to avoid as many hours of living

 

dread as if dread

 

could be outslept; the stretch limo

 

in her eleven-year-old

 

head wrapped itself around the corner

 

That’s the way

 

it would be, everyone slender as drinking straws

 

nobody leaky

 

or hurting or abjectly religious, everything

 

allbillowyellowyorangeyflowywonderfulness

 

Copyright © by C. D. Wright. Used with the permission of the author.