High Water
Nick floated in the air while he slept
His nose touched the ceiling of the cabin
It was his sleeptalking that woke me
He kept saying there’s a water moccasin by the river
He kept saying he can’t go there no more
But I could enter his dream
I unfolded a ladder and climbed up to him
I cut his palm with a pocketknife
It was like kicking open a beaver dam
There was a dark water spilling from his hand
I saw the moon shine on it
I stood under Nick and took a shower in it
I let it run through my fingers
I was clean
Nick’s hand was filling the room with his dream water
It was up to my throat
It was freezing and my teeth were chattering
It was seeping out the old windows
It broke through the door
I was flushed out of the cabin
I was carried away by the dream river
I was spewing down the hills
I was weaving between the trees
I was pouring into other rivers
That’s how the flood happened
I swam with the current of the dream river
I choked and coughed and cried
I climbed into a rowboat that was spinning in circles
I steered with a corn broom
A water moccasin was slithering on the bottom of the rowboat
I grabbed it
I straightened that snake out
I turned it into a fishing pole
I was fishing the trout out of Nick’s dream
The trout flashed like rainbows in the dark
I saw them by the shine of the moon
But all the trout I caught were covered in engine oil
So I just let them flop back to where they came from
And then I saw the dream river rising
And then I lifted myself out of the rowboat
Like Jesus I walked barefoot on the dream river
Like a trout I swam to the bottom and hid under a fallen log
Like the air in my lungs I bubbled to the surface
Like the maple keys I floated downstream on my spine
Like I was a black bear I had a frightened salmon in my teeth
Like a lightning storm was coming I ran out of the water like a bull frog
Like the moss on the trees I bloomed in the dark
Like in a black bird’s throat I was a hoarse voice
Like I was a bloodhound in the smell of deer
Like a ghost I kissed the spiderwebs at midnight
Like the dream flood I was rising up the hillsides
Like a feather was falling through my stomach when I looked at the depths below
Like my head was a hornet nest and all I heard were broken wings
Like hey Nick did you know our hands carried the same dirt
Like the sunset I left cold and afraid
Like the wind I seeped under the door of a hunting lodge
Like a good hunter I pulled the shotgun off the wall
Like in my nightmares I burned down the lodge and danced in circles
Like I was a crazy man I fired the buckshot into the sky
And when I snapped my fingers the buckshot turned to black birds
The black birds were flying around looking for a home
I heard them beating down the dark air
And I grabbed them from the clouds
And fed them black berries
And tucked them under my arm like newspapers
I heard the rushing of the dream flood coming
I had to go higher on the hilltops
I jumped on a bloodhound’s spine
I rode him
His fur moved like the color of the shadows
His tail wagged so hard it broke
He was panting and his tongue was dragging on the ground
And at the top of the hill he was chasing his broken tail in circles
He licked my palms and my face
He bit my forearm dammit then he ran away
I had dog teeth marked on my skin
But I saw far out over the hills
I saw Nick’s sleeping body floating in the dream flood
I saw his hand shooting dark water like a geyser
I dropped my fishing pole on the ground
It turned into a water moccasin
I said sick ‘em boy
Sure enough that water moccasin was chasing after him
Sure enough my stomach was hungry again
I was gigging bull frogs with a broken rake
I saw the moon shine on their blood
I cooked them over a little fire pit
I ate frog legs
Then I stabbed my hand with a pocketknife
And I bled into the dream
This means Nick is my brother
Dusk to dusk
Lucas Dean Clark is from a rural farming community in Northeast Ohio. He writes about his dreams often and has a reoccurring nightmare where he is chased by black-haired dogs. He also walks in the woods like a ghost.