Wednesday, December 9, 2015

To go as fast as I can and jump high into the air


I have a platform cart
I am responsible for
a rolling flat car trolley
with family and friends
at a picnic or estate sale
collecting trash
other possessions
to be thrown away
up a green hill
to another campsite
several trash bins
next to a rowdy group
having a picnic
as I am dumping my trash
and picking up other trash
around the bins
a man approaches me
with a false innocence
and starts becoming antagonistic
I reply to him
as innocuously as I can
others gather around
trying to calm him down
he is upset I am using
the public trash cans near him
without asking his permission
but then realizes I am much bigger than him
he comments on my size and strength
now a park ranger policeman
is standing with the crowd
he leaves me alone
I continue to empty my trolley cart
throwing away sentimental
but valueless possessions
cassette tapes, letters, medals, pens
there is a brief pang
a worry someone might want these
but I clear everything off the trolley
now I am in a big mall
maybe in Washington DC
monumental landscapes
my ex-wife or first love
is in another building
I exit the mall with my trolley
I push it from behind
it is about six feet long and three feet wide
with a rising handle on the end
where I push
I start running very fast
with no effort
running for the sheer joy of running
I come to a set of stairs
leap off of them into the sky
like a skateboarder
there is a moment of anxiety
that sense of falling in a dream
the trolley is dipping down
but I control it
I am about 30 ft in the sky
and I land gracefully
trolley and all
and continue to run
as fast as I can
in the distance
sitting in the middle
of a vast concrete expanse
is Miley Cyrus
from the Wrecking Ball video
she is in a chair
looks surreal to me
even in the dream
like a figure from a Dali painting
I run straight for her
as I get closer
I see it is a girl on her stomach
like a Sphinx
taking photographs of something behind me
I continue towards here
at a high speed
then I swing the trolley in the gravel
like snow skiing
to break my speed and slow
I move past her
and into through the double glass doors
of another mall
where my ex-wife or first love
is waiting
I stop once I am inside
she is irritated
because she has to wait
to go through a security line
where they are checking bags
and identification
she can't find her ID
and is getting more and more pissed
then she finds it
I want to get outside
to run again with the cart
to go as fast as I can
and jump high into the air