Literary Orphans

Perchance by Anne Gorrick

Thomas-H-swing

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

O Typekey Divider

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.

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O Typekey Divider

–Art by Thomas H

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