Sleep Dramas

By Catherine Parilla

staged behind shuttered lids

casting characters-in-one

 

moving in REM sleep time

turns left, right, left again.

 

familiar nocturnal actors appear

arousing childhood fears

 

others are super human and fly

but exotic compelling strangers

 

give passionate kisses

beside waters turquoise

 

only to fade in a mindless snore―

a director’s dream.

Catherine Parilla’s poems have been published in: Alembic, Compass Rose, Crack the Spine, Diverse Voices Quarterly, descant, Eclipse, Eureka Literary Magazine, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Griffin, Licking River Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Pisgah Review, POEM, Wisconsin Review. A
I taught academic and creative writing at New York University, Montclair University, and Fairleigh Dickinson University where I was a senior lecturer for ten years. My Ph.D. is in comparative literature from NYU with a focus on literary theory.