Valerie Fox

Two Important Questions Concerning Dreams

If one dream could be enacted, for real, which one would
you choose? What would you be wearing in it?

Maybe the one where I sprint after the thief
who has stolen my camera out of my unlocked car.

I had some good pictures.
I’d be wearing (when chasing)

my usual red pants and I’d be skinny.
I’d run all the way here, the place I never intended

for retirement, yet, always end up back at.
My disproportional business partner helps me chase

down the thief and takes a leadership role
in leading him to police.

And in addition, I am not afraid to say the same words
twenty times in a row.

Dear Doctor Friend, I also dreamed of you
and my earlier donkey.

Tell me, why is it people can’t recognize their own
state of mind but think they know mine?

Back to the camera (dream) drama, I get it back.
I get it. Do you? This dream is contagious.

Valerie Fox’s books include The Rorschach Factory (Straw Gate Books) and The Glass Book (Texture Press). Recently she published Poems for the Writing: Prompts for Poets, co-authored with Lynn Levin. She’s published writing in Hanging Loose, Ping Pong, Qarrtsiluni, Sentence, West Branch, Apiary, and other journals. She teaches at Drexel University, in Philadelphia.