Ordinary Nightmares Poem by Patti Masterman

Ordinary nightmares
That hardly bear repeating:
Like wolves, in sheepish clothing;
You can scarcely hear the bleating.
And hands that rise from graves,
Grab your ankle, as you're leaving;
Your staring eyes can't fathom
How well they could deceive you.

The dreaming world's not ordered
Like the library of mind;
Where, recall but the emotion,
Or the time frame, of the line
And the book pops up like magic,
Small trouble there, to find.
But subconscious minds an ocean
No one's figured how to mine.

Ordinary nightmares
Can't make me lose my breath;
They can frighten me with illness,
They can frighten me with death;
They can show unearthly triage,
With no hope left there, to stay:
But the nightmare's just beginning
The day you go away.