benni

two dogs, dark and ominous, plaguing my sleep...

they started out decent, but lost their owners; a bright eyed couple who loved the mean out of them, chased away in a flourish of wagging tails and swirled air...

colors ooze through the scene. cant process.

then they wander away... forget the kindnesses done them and instinct burns in their brains, an itch behind their ear they just cant shake...

and they turn on a little girl and her screams bring the owners running

in time to see a legless man being dragged through a thistle field by a young boy

and two dogs making off with a leg in each maw

running after them then and a semi goes by, in front of the animals

and when it's gone, so are they

and theyre on the loose again

and then im dropped into the scene, not watching anymore but wrested from my perch, dropped into the shallow end of a murky pond where a semi's crashed, the cab filled with blood and a smell like gunshot

and the dogs circle in the water ravenous and red eyed and i find something to climb and i climb it and suddenly im hanging from the ceiling in an empty room while they circle below me on foot all growls and teeth, occassionally jumping to snap at my heels... and you would think in a nightmare they would just miss me but they catch hold here and there; a calf, a toe, and my blood paints swaths of red on the walls and the ceilings and there's no one there to draw them away while i hang...

*

and i wake with a thin layer of sweat on my back, like frost, and i want

*

and i dont know what to say, so i dont say anything, and i wake up and everythings worse...

*

and all i can think of is her

white face, silent with a smile like death

waking out of my coma, jumping out of my skin

trying to slough off my body in my flight from the room, death cackling in my ears and chasing my heels

and the day went on as planned

and nothing stopped.