dreaming, we know how high the moon

how deep the sea, how red the sands of distant shores
where intersecting places dive up t’ward the world
where they part, and where our dreams divide us
sheer us root to crown and send us seeking
sleepers waked and walking in the world

we have looked across the intervening space
at strangers faces, over coffee, sometimes in a crowd
we have known them from the footprints in our dreams
the shapes of somnus feet spelled out in recesses
somewhere behind the eyes where lies

a rumbling recognition

we have reached out to each other, each to each
slumbering arms spanning seas and continents

caught each other in passages to nightmare

and soothed our friends to waking

we have plunged our bodies into seas of strife

removed villainous weapons before they could cut

staged hot air balloon rescues from the edges of cliffs

we have been the heroes of each other’s dreams

we have stood together, you and I,

upon the crumbling bridge of moonlight between here and Mars

we have built a ladder out of childish things

clambered ‘cross it to the shadow’d crags of distant shores

we have been pirates, villains, friends and lovers

and sometimes, when we wake, we still remember

before the light of day mutes memories

we know, still, the faces of our friends

and we know

we know

we know how high the moon