Excerpt from draft, "Studio Dreams"

I had a dream right before I left 

the heart flower paper airplane cage.

here is what happened.  there was 

hats and fathers

an ornate white bird cage 

brown leather bird mask

feathers

on the floor, tiny wooden toy 

huts

cars

wheeled animals 

the trees lost their heads

at the side swipe of a little boy’s hand.

& then the whirring 

{a hummingbird’s wings,

a teleportation device

an enthusiastic audience claps 

jet fueled grass-faced spirit dances}

falling. air tunnel. heart racing don’t care

snap ~ a hay colored parachute.

knees impact like an angry slap.

the black road burns off a layer of callouses.

dust. an armadillo.  a rusty truck 

one flower petulantly stares at a cloudless sky

horses Alice Walker the rolling hills. 

then, 

I am confused. 

the palm trees take off their masks. 

{ghost goat girl in her purple dress

waves and motions to me 

we meander a maze of wooden shacks

to the old slaughter house.

she dips one toe in the stone trough

where the blood ran off. & disappears.)

I shimmy under the shed. collect a jaw bone.

an old woman with snakes for hair 

shakes a backbone bellowing laughter.

a sudden reluctant peace crashes through my sternum 

erupts from my tear ducts when I realize the old woman is me

and this is the lost dream of a 20 year old girl

resurrected and frail.  presumed dead just like all the other 

good little Brown girls no one remembers.