Excerpt from Waking Dream

(Excerpt from Section 1)

John William Dunne–

Accomplished Anglo/Irish aeronautical engineer

Designer of Britain’s
Early military aircraft

Envisions flying machine
That needs no steering

No steering

Flight of the zanortia seed

Parachute seeds
Fly through the air

Carried by wind

Fly

Staying at a hotel
In Sussex

Dreams one night

Having an argument
With one of the waiters

What is the correct time?
What is the correct time?
 
JW asserts

It’s half past four
In the afternoon

The waiter
Says no

Can’t possibly be

–Why it’s half past four
–In the middle of the night

Nonsense!

What is the correct time?
What is the correct time?

No steering

Carried by wind

Concludes his watch
Must have stopped

Extracts 18k Grand Priz Paris Zenith watch
From his waistcoat pocket

That is precisely the case

Precisely the case

It has stopped

Standing in the wind

It has stopped

Stopped

In the wind

At half past four

Half past four

Wakes from his dream

Half past four

Puts on his glasses

Lights a match

To his surprise

The watch is not

As it usually is

By his bedside
Gets out of bed

Parts the mosquito curtains

Wakes from his dream

What is the correct time?

What is the correct time?

Finds it

Lying on a chest of drawers

Behind the mosquito curtains

It has stopped

Stopped

The hands
At half past four

Half past four

What is happening?

Solution perfectly obvious

I am a rational person

Watch must have stopped

Previous afternoon

I must have noticed
But forgotten

Behind the mosquito curtains

No steering

Carried by wind

Remembered in his dream

Remembered

Rewinds the instrument

But not knowing the real time

Leaves the hands as they are

As they are

Dashes downstairs

Find the nearest clock

Set the watch right

Set it right

To his absolute amazement

The hands

Have only lost
Two or three minutes

About the amount of time
Between waking from the dream

And rewinding the watch

The watch stopped
At the actual moment

Of the dream

Standing in the wind

Waking from the dream

How did I come to see

In my dream

That the hands stopped
As they actually did

How?

Half past four

Behind the mosquito curtains

Carried by wind
Carried by wind

JW Dunne

Has stopped time

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Matt Bialer

MATT BIALER is the author of 17 collections of poetry ASCENT and WONDER WEAVERS (Bizarro Pulp Press (JournalStone), FORMATION (Weirdo Magnet), DISTANT SHORES (Villipede Publications), THE VALLEY OF THE RIGHT and THIRD EYE OF THE INNER LIGHT (Leaky Boot Press).His poems have appeared in many print and online journals including Retort, Le Zaporogue, Green Mountains Review, Gobbet, Forklift Ohio, and H_NGM_N. In addition, Matt is an acclaimed black and white street photographer who has exhibited his work widely. Some of his images are in the permanent collections of The Brooklyn Museum, The Museum of the City of New York and The New York Public Library. He is also an accomplished watercolor landscape painter with work in many private collections.

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