Blessed Suffocation

author's note:

Some claim dreams are meaningless...

Maybe their dreams are.  Mine aren't.


BLESSED SUFFOCATION

In the dream I could not breathe

for one full year!--

as I held to a stiff chair
at the bottom of a murky lake.

To survive this test of endurance
I needed to claw down deep
into my lungs
just to dredge up
a few molecules of oxygen
hidden in storage.

Years later, when I think of this dream
I again experience
the frightening sense
of suffocation--
the tightness in my chest--
the feeling of imprisonment.

Good to remember my strength.

I believe
the wise one within
leads us into trials of adversity
so that we will expand
our capacity.

I believe
that interior puppeteer
gave me the dream
so that I might realize
the benefit of my hardship
then fight for life
instead of crying.

Some will scoff at these ideas--
they'll state flatly:
no "deep self" enacts a grand plan.

Nonetheless, I'd guess
we'd at least share this one belief:

through such painful tests
people grow.

© 2019, Michael R. Patton
the truth of the dream: poetry ebook