One day I awoke from a dream
Wherein the world was asleep,
No one was beside me,
I wasn’t in bed, but on the subway
And all eyes were closed
Like the tired commuters were dead
Secretaries in nude pantyhose
And starched blouses,
The businessmen dressed like Clark Kent
Asleep as the subway rattled on its tracks
Through tunnel after tunnel
Never stopping;
In the fishponds at the zoo
The sharks were swimming
And the piranhas were biting,
A cow thrown in by unseen hands
Was reduced to nothing,
Even the bones were gone,
For no reason at all I imagined
That this is what life must be like
On Devil’s Island
Where the French prisoners were sent
To the topless women in grass skirts
Doing the hula,
It must be hell and paradise at once,
And even if the mud colored girl
Straight out of a Gauguin, VD and all
Made me lick the bottoms of her dirty feet
It wouldn’t disturb my dream
No one would be wounded
In the fake war
And the commuters would stay sleeping
As the train rattled on on its tracks
Through tunnel after tunnel
Never stopping
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem