Mark A. Fisher
in my dreams
she is just a ghost
another ghost that walks
through the walls of sleep
rattling chains
and moaning
through my cluttered attic and closets
trying to make me remember
or perhaps
wishing I would forget
lamenting what she was
who she was
who I was
back then
before
when she thought she knew me
and believed I could play the hero
in a play she'd write for me
where she would be the star
that star
burning bright
in a night sky revolving
about a milky way
a cosmos
of spilled milk and tears
evolving like a river
with its trials and tributaries
flowing over and past
battered beaten stone
jumbled in that bed
crowding out all dreams
in flecks of mica
taken for gold
melt down
in some cataclysm
that created new metamorphic rock
out of all those years
and moments
that oozed like lava
across our empty deserts
leaving scabs
to mark our graves
and in my dreams
our gravestones whisper tales
to each other
yet neither listen
Mark A. Fisher is a writer, poet, and playwright living in Tehachapi, CA. His poetry has appeared in: Angel City Review, A Sharp Piece of Awesome, Altadena Poetry Review, Penumbra, Turnip Truck(s), and many other places. His first chapbook, drifter, is available from Amazon. His second, hour of lead, won the 2017 San Gabriel Valley Poetry Chapbook Contest. His plays have appeared on California stages in Pine Mountain Club, Tehachapi, Bakersfield, and Hayward. His column “Lost in the Stars” has appeared in Tehachapi's The Loop newspaper for several years. He has also won cooking ribbons at the Kern County Fair.
in my dreams
she is just a ghost
another ghost that walks
through the walls of sleep
rattling chains
and moaning
through my cluttered attic and closets
trying to make me remember
or perhaps
wishing I would forget
lamenting what she was
who she was
who I was
back then
before
when she thought she knew me
and believed I could play the hero
in a play she'd write for me
where she would be the star
that star
burning bright
in a night sky revolving
about a milky way
a cosmos
of spilled milk and tears
evolving like a river
with its trials and tributaries
flowing over and past
battered beaten stone
jumbled in that bed
crowding out all dreams
in flecks of mica
taken for gold
melt down
in some cataclysm
that created new metamorphic rock
out of all those years
and moments
that oozed like lava
across our empty deserts
leaving scabs
to mark our graves
and in my dreams
our gravestones whisper tales
to each other
yet neither listen
Mark A. Fisher is a writer, poet, and playwright living in Tehachapi, CA. His poetry has appeared in: Angel City Review, A Sharp Piece of Awesome, Altadena Poetry Review, Penumbra, Turnip Truck(s), and many other places. His first chapbook, drifter, is available from Amazon. His second, hour of lead, won the 2017 San Gabriel Valley Poetry Chapbook Contest. His plays have appeared on California stages in Pine Mountain Club, Tehachapi, Bakersfield, and Hayward. His column “Lost in the Stars” has appeared in Tehachapi's The Loop newspaper for several years. He has also won cooking ribbons at the Kern County Fair.