This is a poem I wrote in 2013 about my own experience of homelessness. It is also a personal response to Drew Dellinger’s wonderful poem “Hieroglyphic Stairway.” I have read my poem to Drew in person (he approves).
“Where My Dreams Sleep”
I am a hieroglyphic stairway
you found me in the street
all I need
is your human touch
to lift me up
release my voice, my speech,
and the powers I keep
it’s 2:22 in the morning
and I’m awake
in the world of the now
cold consciousness encompasses
the cradle where my dreams sleep quietly
safe—suspended animation
hidden under blankets of time
spirited away from the
glare of midnight lights
and empty windows
the hard edges and violent angles
of street corners and sidewalks
stretching back into windy oblivion
peeling away the skin of the world I live in
the dark night, home of the homeless
in this moment
my dreams are a distant memory
my voice forgotten
as ancient tongues of hunger
speak their greeting
shivers split the cold air
that splinters into spiders
crawling climbing through my spine in to
anxiety
the exhaustion of a lifetime
of unresolved traumas
and new awarenesses birthing
embroiled in the wild flood
of these immediate demands
how to eat?
how to bathe?
where to sleep?
how to fight these frightening anxieties?
how to fight these frightening anxieties?
how to fight these frightening anxieties
to find a way of existing
in between the bleating
of these questions that need answering?
I am a hieroglyphic stairway
you found me in the street
I am an alien artifact from the future
dressed up in plaid flannel
and landed at your feet
a statue of a man reborn
from a picture taken
just after giving up everything
and just before awakening
I am the most willing student
the most motivated citizen
that you have ever seen
all I need
is your human touch
to lift me up
restore my vital energies
unleash my voice, my speech,
and the powers I keep
that I may see
these precious things
my hidden dreams
released.