I'm driving a blue van

By Cheryl Marie Wade

I'm driving a blue van and the road is too narrow the brakes don't work suddenly there is water all around I'm in the back seat with no control in the driver's seat--no control There is a dream leopard the leopard is on a gold chain the gold chain is held by a legless dream crone I don't know the combination to my locker or the boys yes the boys all the dream boys and the girls girls A my name is Annie and my boyfriend's name is Skull of the dream hawk I am the dream bones of the hawk There is my mother's rock hard face and my father's dirty laugh The purr of the dream cat that becomes a heartbeat I escape by flying I escape by dying the feel of the cool dream waves over my eyes cool cool waves the black void whose embracing arms I leap to the burning sands I decompose into the fuzzy black dream spider that bites my dream thigh my eyes my eyes my dream eyes Gramma pulling my dream toward heaven the priest offering me eternal dream damnation Father's rock hard face Mother's dirty laugh the dream Why I melt into into in....

About this poem

Spoken in A Woman With Juice, and in Finding Words (1995) over a musical underscore.

We’re not sure of this poem’s title. Wade left it untitled, so it is known here by its first line. We haven’t yet found a published version of this poem. If you know its title, or where it was published, please get in touch.