Zoë Ryder White

[The dream says what exists]

The dream says what exists 
before you bring the words 
is changed by the words when they come. 
Elephantine. Bent, like the sweetgrass 
the cricket leapt onto and held. Submerged. 
The dream says fathomless and you think 
of the dark in the swimming hole, the soup pot, 
but the dream means geese leaving 
and shows that to you. You can’t keep that,
or anything, says the dream. 
Walmart shimmering across the parking lot 
with its ordered packs of socks, its bathmats: 
also temporary, so temporary you can 
simultaneously withstand and enjoy it. 
The dream says standing in line 
you might learn something, listening 
to the person in front of you 
and the person behind.

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