Poetry by Alexandria Williams

Edited by Emily Ferguson

You were in my dream last night… 

And you ran

I chased you

I screamed your name

I couldn’t understand 

Why you ran

Why I followed 

You were in my dream last night

I was falling

But you didn’t catch me:

I believed that it was my fault 

I blamed myself

For your mistakes

They say dreams come from the heart

It tells the brain stories to help it sleep

My heart told the story of you

Reminded the brain of what it forgot

The heart always remembers 

Even when the mind has moved on 

The heart remembers;

It called out to you

You didn’t listen 

You didn’t care

You were in my dream last night… 

I loved you

But when I said it

You disagreed

Disappeared 

And I woke up

You were in my dream last night

It was such a beautiful nightmare 

Because you were there

Writer’s Statement: This poem is based on a dream I had where I thought I met the love of my life but they turned out to not be. Although it was a dream, the image of them actively rejecting me in various ways really stuck with me. It’s been years since I’ve had this dream and to this day I don’t know what triggered it, but sometimes I imagine it was my heart revealing one of its darkest fears to me. It relates to the theme because it’s about dreams and to me, dreams and nightmares are messages or visions from one’s life (or the result of eating a large pizza right before bed).