Mute
I wrote this after a friend and coworker of mine told me about a situation like this, in which she'd dreamt something horrible about a person she'd never met but upon seeing the woman, could not bring herself to tell her...
The dreams are frightening
You lay awake for hours
Praying for the peace of slumber
That will not come
When you close your heavy eyes finally
The dreams are waiting
As they always are
The shadow of a man
The glint of a blade's edge
The shrieking of a woman you do not know
Yet she is familiar
Something awful is taking place
The shadow moves
The knife arcs
Abruptly, the shrieking halts
Giving way to the fateful gasps of last breath
There is blood
Rivers of it, it seems
You want to help
To flea
To call out at least
But you remain motionless
Your voice stays trapped within your throat
Muted in the shadows
You wake
The sun is rising
Dawn is on it's way
And so are you
To another day of work
The tedious monotony of your job
Is both comforting and disturbing
You greet the many patrons
Each face bleeding into the next
Until you look up suddenly
To find the woman
Straight out of your nightmares
Staring back at you
Time stills
You knew she was familiar
You'd seen her before
You want to say something
You should
Tell her about the dream
Warn her about the shadows
The man
The knife
The blood
Something
Anything
But your words stick, bitter on your palate
Left mute once again as she disappears out the door.
Copy-written to Xander Bradeshaw