Cornelius Eady
Bad Dream
It’s like waking up, but not waking up
The things of this world
A film in your mouth,
Milk in the fridge a bit
Too long, you know
That flavor,
You’re walking in a thrift shop
—how did you get there?
And the thought occurs
As you check the price tags
That everything you see
Once had a glory
Before the rust sat in,
Was once connected
To something bigger
Whose story
Is now gone. Forever.
Then you wake up
But you don’t wake up
And you walk to a coffee shop
What happened?
Everyone there shivers and sips
Sips and shivers.
How did you all land in a coffee shop?
How come this coffee doesn’t work?
The bad taste in the cup.
Cornelius Eady, poet and cofounder of Cave Canem, has published more than half a dozen volumes of poetry, among them Victims of the Latest Dance Craze (1985), winner of the Lamont Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets; The Gathering of My Name (1991), nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; and Brutal Imagination (2001), a National Book Award finalist. Hardheaded Weather: New and Selected Poems appeared in 2008.
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