Typical dream fall
sailing out 99th floor
office building window
Wind is 1,000 pillows
slowing me down
slowing me down
So on my way down
I’m feeling like some sort of tourist
on my way to Australia
Birds think: wow
here’s that Alfred Hitchcock
movie: The Humans we’ve been hearing about
Workers take unscheduled coffeebreaks
just to see me in motion and wave
at me listening to me say: “Hey, I want to fall
faster: throw me some heavy stones
for my pockets”
That’s misunderstood
so they throw me a rope instead
What do they expect me to do….turn it into
a tightwire then walk across on it
like an aerialist
to an even more obscure security?
As far as I can see
the sidewalk is about to crash into me
like a concrete freight train
Surely it looks like earth but it’s really just bedtime
I must begin removing my clothes
as if getting ready for sleep
Waking up now would just be pretending all of this is
dreaming about being alive
Los Angeles (1994)
From: Crosswalk Casserole
Summary
“IT’S ONLY A DREAM…………………RIGHT?” by Michael C. Ford is a poem centered on nature, travel and movement. Its imagery is anchored in Los Angeles. The poem develops its subject through recurring images and shifts in emotional pressure rather than reducing the experience to a single statement.
Analysis
Voice
A personal, first-person speaker combines recollection with direct emotional address.
Style and form
The poem is line-driven, first-person. The poem moves by accumulation: images, references, and tonal turns build on one another, so meaning emerges from their relationships as much as from narrative sequence.
Themes and imagery
Its strongest thematic currents include nature, travel and movement. Concrete images give those abstractions physical weight, while changes in diction and pace keep the poem from settling into a single emotional register.
Reading the poem
A productive way to read “IT’S ONLY A DREAM…………………RIGHT?” is to watch how its images change function as the poem progresses. Details that initially establish scene or memory become emotional evidence. The result is a poem whose argument is carried through association, rhythm, and image as much as through explicit statement.
Explore this poem
Source & rights
Source: Crosswalk Casserole (Lawn Gnome Publishing, First Edition, 2013)
Rights: © 2013 Lawn Gnome Publishing. All rights reserved.