She dreamed of being Marcia Brady but obsessed over Charles Manson
He dreamed of cats and foxes
They dreamed they were made of dirt or shadows
She dreamed about the stars
He dreamed of becoming a rapper
They dreamed their words would last a thousand years
She dreamed of being rescued by a hero, but thinks she lacks grace and elegance
He dreamed of a chrome skeleton emerging out of a fire
They dreamed of being ballerinas
She dreamed of cows
He dreamed he was walking along the beach with Our Lord
They dreamed they were playing tag with mermaids
She dreamed the location of mistakes in her bank accounts
He dreamed up a god and called it Christianity
They dreamed of water charts, water currents
She dreamed about a displaced person
He dreamed that it was warm, secret, about the size of a clenched fist, and of a garnet color within the penumbra of a human body as yet without face or sex
They dreamed variant spellings of themselves
She dreamed about love and forgiveness and airplanes
He dreamed he was at the Stork Club, arguing with Hemingway
They dreamed of nothing and got nothing in return
She dreamed that someone was squeezing her wrist
He dreamed that someone brought him four bottles of wine
They dreamed a pool of urine in their bed
She dreamed he suddenly said, “I can see the fire!”
He dreamed he was eating shredded wheat and woke up to find the mattress half gone
They dreamed up the most impossible plan
She dreamed of clowns who wear business suits and sing about coffee tables
He dreamed up a device that can both deafen and thrill you at the same time
They dreamed of winter, everything electric, kinetic, he was walking through it, where she followed language
She dreamed of frogs who fall in love with dragonflies
He dreamed of rock and roll and redemption
They dreamed of playing in the National Hockey League
She dreamed of escape
He dreamed God was singing and clacking his maracas
They dreamed of becoming reality
She dreamed she was the darling of the Tumblrverse. Likes had turned into Crushes, the Followed into Followers
He dreamed about losing three of his teeth
They dreamed of swaying back and forth together on a creaky wooden swing
She dreamed she killed a man and didn’t know what to do
He dreamed that the sun and the moon and 11 stars bowed to him
They dreamed of leaping naked off a cliff
She dreamed about large drawing rooms draped in expensive silks
He dreamed of solving the Entscheidungsproblem and thereby solving as corollaries all the famous unsolved problems of mathematics
They dreamed of a bulletproof flying avenger
She dreamed the library had fallen down
He dreamed that he had a nice little brown coat that was waterproof
They dreamed of hiding
She dreamed of water often
He dreamed of a ritualized suicide like that of Mishima
They dreamed they died in their sleep
She dreamed that she had oxidized
He dreamed there was no rub
They dreamed they were fireworks
She dreamed Deepak Chopra was chasing her
He dreamed that another woman came, and washed his head in blood
They dreamed of growing up and flying through space
She dreamed of rats
He dreamed of tall corn stalks
They dreamed of the dividends
She dreamed of being Queen of the Spelling Bee
He dreamed of having plastic surgery
They dreamed in color
She dreamed of going to the circus in her Maidenform bra
He dreamed of forming a six-tuba ensemble
They dreamed with their eyes shut
She dreamed about her donor before the operation
He dreamed he was deer hunting with only his hands as a weapon
They dreamed of freedom birds
She dreamed that Colette got into the garbage disposal and was killed
He dreamed of being a prisoner of skilled prostitutes
They dreamed of creating a washing machine that would defeat the world chess champion
She dreamed haircut day would never come
He dreamed of hatching baby robins
They dreamed of practicing medicine on each other
She dreamed of a dirt path painstakingly raked like a Zen garden
He dreamed that his royal life would end in disgrace
They dreamed about a plane crash
She dreamed of dressing up like a man to become a Dominican friar
He dreamed about snow all the time
They dreamed only after they woke up
She dreamed that she was naked in a church
He dreamed he resonated with popular culture
They dreamed up their own experiment
She dreamed of the exotic dishes she would conjure with hard-to-find fruit
He dreamed of arms that would not reach
They dreamed about tromping through bat caves and thought the caves were like mazes
She dreamed of wearing pink satin on Dancing With the Stars
He dreamed of flying through a variety of information spaces
They dreamed of snakes, of being chased by men with knives, by rabid dogs
She dreamed of an umbrella stand, picture frames, leather
He dreamed he was a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floor
They dreamed significantly
She dreamed that she went into the kitchen and Michael Jackson (or wait, was it Janet?) had left his lunch cooking on the stove. Where had he gone?
He dreamed, as human beings always dreamed — random firings of memory and imagination that the unconscious mind tries to put together
They dreamed often in oak and cherry
She dreamed that she was on the bridge but forgot to get dressed
He dreamed he was the happy owner of a shoe store
They dreamed they were ever more useful in their functionality
She dreamed of devising a universal system familiar to one and all
He dreamed about him again the following night.
They dreamed of the myriad ways Julian could swindle his evil boss Luigi
She dreamed that the ghost of Pol Pot was cold and unhappy and miserable, so she put her life-savings together and built a little shelter
He dreamed of a world of clean lines, flat surfaces and simple forms
They dreamed of being museum exhibits
She dreamed of a small New England farm
He dreamed of letters in thin blue envelopes addressed in a slanted hand
They dreamed about fattened squirrels and cats that might be left dead in the city’s streets
She dreamed in Chinese characters
He dreamed of gospel tents and vast auditoriums
They dreamed of becoming the Home Depot of karaoke
She dreamed of being underwater
He dreamed in jingles
They dreamed about little unimportant happenings
She dreamed, at some level conscious of working to subvert the dream she was having
He dreamed about fitting pipes to your personality
They dreamed of fulfilling their manifest destiny
She dreamed there was a bomb
He dreamed that a savage king ordered him to invent a sewing machine
They dreamed of the day they could build something of their own, frequently out of fiberglass
She dreamed of the day when she would gun down everyone
He dreamed one night that he had coughed up pink sputum, which is indicative of cancer
They dreamed of the alchemical union of fire and water
She dreamed of having
He dreamed of doing
They dreamed that their houses would appreciate forever
She dreamed of wearing the red coat of a messenger
He dreamed he was a missionary caught by natives
They dreamed up a flood that never happened
She dreamed there was a whole regiment of six-inch beams standing 40 feet high
He dreamed convenient acts of God
They dreamed of soon
She dreamed that he had bitten into her body and that his jaws were dripping
He dreamed sentimentally; then he became practical again
They dreamed of science-based products
She dreamed of a bakery case of French pastries
He dreamed of trains arriving and departing. He dreamed of such safety, such banality, he imagined it might settle into his skin
They dreamed about their backyards
She dreamed of becoming a funeral director
He dreamed of becoming a god-fearing butcher in a delicatessen in New York City
They dreamed of becoming wilderness heroes themselves
They dreamed in the most imaginative detail
Anne Gorrick is a poet and visual artist.
She is the author of six books of poetry including the forthcoming An Absence So Great and Spontaneous it is Evidence of Light (The Operating System, 2018) and The Olfactions: Poems on Perfume (BlazeVOX Books, 2017. She also co-edited (with poet Sam Truitt) In|Filtration: An Anthology of Innovative Writing from the Hudson River Valley (Station Hill Press, 2016).
Anne Gorrick lives in West Park, New York. Bio photo by Franco Vogt.
–Art by Thomas H