Saturday, December 14, 2024

Intending to get back home

 Intending to get back home

As I roam in my sleep,

I make my way to a familiar railway station

Where, to my consternation,

I recognise the platforms, the stairs, the trains,

But not the names of the destinations

So, I scan indicators

And read the route maps,

Looking for the reason for this mishap.

I try to see where I went wrong.

To find the route I wanted all along.

Perplexed I decide to go by bus instead.

Out in the London street

The busses are double decked and red

The streets at first seem the same

As those I walked when awake

Yet they’re somehow different

And I don’t know which to take.

Then I think I’ll find my way,

If I just walk down here

Past a large domed building

Which must be the Albert Hall?

Or a church or a cathedral,

But it isn’t that at all.

Military people stand around outside

Waiting for a bugle call

Lost and bewildered

I wake from this bad dream.

To my own known  reality 

Where the howling gale outside my window

Seems reassuring to me.

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