The Dream Thief

The dream thief
comes each morning
before day begins.

The dream thief arrives
in those brief hypnotic
moments when you are
halfway drifting between
sleep and waking.

The dream thief
steals your dreams.

If you awaken
to an alarm,
his task is easy.

You shed your dreams
swiftly with an alarm.
One moment you inhabit
a world of infinite
possibility and then,
the real world.

With speed and finesse
the dream thief
scoops up your dreams
like discarded trash
and stuffs them deep
in his gunnysack.

If you awaken slowly,
as sunlight breaches
the curtained windows
and bleaches the inside
of your eyes from black
to brown to reddish tints,
the dream thief moves
more slowly, but is
always very thorough.

For these are mornings
when your dreams may
cling to your thoughts
through daylight hours.

The dream thief steals
all of your dreams,
or all he can steal,
for if he didn’t,
and you remembered them,
there is no telling
who you could become.