projection on election day morn

Poetry by Craig Stormont ♠ Art by Troy Gua

I just rose at 4:38 AM after dreaming

I was someplace that

resembled MIT in some way

unaware of how I got there

the place filled with long haired people

and activists with free newspapers

some type of gathering

not convention with Cyclops Olson

who was at work preparing to read on multiple occasions

at various stages in his life

with different clothes on each time we met

once even a funny hat

and I kept seeing him

while I tried to take a photo of one of several newspapers

the one with a picture of Jimi Hendrix the most

after Olson was on a stage with the Fugs and

I didn’t bother with the photo

choosing instead to speak to various

people who were there in what now

seems such a forgotten era

even walking into a room and interrupting

a conversation between Cyclops Olson

and a former female friend

or so I thought

who chose to scold me

for two days instead

of discourse with him

eventually disappearing

and I did speak with the poet politician

as he talked of a different republic

then moved to a crowded room and accidentally dropped papers

I found on a glass case

which someone else gathered smiling

then Olson stood at the top of a flight of stairs and offered cannabis

and I asked for a piece of it from the large

bag he held and distributed it from

and all there were happy

no one rushed

anywhere until I woke up on the couch

not wanting to fully clothed

wearing my glasses and the

phone fell from my chest to the floor

leaving me startled to

see the television was on

with no sound but a war film

about Somalia glaring out at me

and it took a while to realize I was only

dreaming and the truth of our time is ugly

and it is election day

but no one is worthy of a vote so

I went and pissed

feeling fortunate to have a dream

Check out more Troy Gua artwork at www.TroyGua.com