Dreams

He had this dream . . . this one:
A man wearing a stovepipe hat
stood at the back of a gypsy wagon
praising a bottle of magic elixir
whose enyzyme, Telomerase,
he guaranteed would reverse
aging and for only two hundred
and fifty dollars per bottle filled
with 30 ccs of this magic formula
that must be used every day and
for only four hundred and fifty
two bottles that would ordinarily
cost five hundred (he said to help
those already on their way around
the aging cycle). Reset your clock!
Renew your DNA! Reverse age
from the inside out! No side effects!
How much longer I can offer this
amazing elixir I cannot tell you!
It may cost you seven thousand
by the time I come to town again!

He woke and put his hand on her
beautiful skin. He looked her over
with joy in him full to bursting
behind his eyes. He did not know
her, but how could he not love her?
She woke, her eyes on his, steady
and warm but the day already
on her lips, sun flooding the room.
I got to put up a darker blanket
so I can sleep later if I want to,
she smiled. He said something lewd
and she made love with him again,
her body wrapped fully around his.
When he was dreaming he was
fifty and she was seventy. Now
I can’t tell you how much time
has passed since then. I can say
they are still waking together.
They go to sleep to the cicadas.
Their bodies glisten with love’s
juices, the kind you can’t contain.

(18 August 2011)

copyright 2011 by Floyce Alexander