my face hits the cold, cotton pillow

and i dream...

 

He lies on a pale, white bed

His body drained and damaged by needles and fears

His lips recede in a snarl                baring yellowing teeth

I lean in to hear him        he is mumbling

 

‘I have tried’

‘I have tried’

‘I have tried’

 

the man with stars for eyes hands me a scalpel

acid tears sting his cheeks            he sighs through time

you are a surgeon, he says

 

 

cut         

 

 

cut away these tumescent days

cut away these cysts and legions that blight His body

cut away at His skin, peel back His light and cauterise the hate

quiet the fury in the minds of those that can only seethe in whispers

shave the overgrown gorse that blights the garden

 

shaking i make the first incision

i slit His skin and open His body

inside is time

cogs and gears and mechanisms

i pull wires and tubes from His body until i find a golden timepiece

a fob watch with one single hand, endlessly turning

 

turn back time

says the man with stars for eyes

turn back time and rid us of everything

melt this world down and let us start again

 

i take the fragile hand

and wind it back

 

backwards walks a man with a gun

backwards walks a man with a knife

backwards walk a million jews

backwards walk a million slaves

backwards walk a million broken hearts

backwards walk a billion broken souls

 

then a soft, light peace

a blanket of love settles on the world

 

the man with stars for eyes cries whole galaxies

cries oceans of hope

cries a single tear containing two perfect beings

 

...and i wake

and forward we march

forward

forward

into the horizon

into the tears of God.