Angel Dream.

Angel Dream

   In my dreams, angels
   are wrestling with me,
   trying to tell me
   something I must not want
   to hear because they seem
   to be getting nowhere.

   I see myself arguing eloquently
   though I do not know what I am saying,
   and from the distance,
   as I watch in my dream,
   we seem to be dancing,

   but suddenly the camera zooms in
   and from behind me
   a large staff, hard as rock,
   whacks against the back of my right calf
   and breaks my leg.

   "Don't go there," a voice booms.
   "You are as stubborn as salt
   rising to the crust of the earth"
   and then, as if for good measure,
   the staff comes round again
   and breaks my other leg.
   "Don't even think about it," the voice says.

   I see a body belonging to the voice,
   moving as if in shadow,
   walking into the distance, into the dark.
   It does not look back.

Michael S. Glaser teaches at St. Mary's College of Maryland, where he directs the VOICES reading series and the literary festival. His most recent collection of poems is "Being a Father. "He is the Poet Laureate of Maryland.