I took today's NaPoWriMo prompt and morphed it into something else. The prompt was to write entries for a dream dictionary using one or more of these words: teacup, hammer, seagull, ballet slipper, shark, wobbly table, dentist, and rowboat. But instead of a dream dictionary entry, I wrote it in the form of a dream (nightmare) journal entry.
Into the Vortex
I was in a rowboat, floating in coffee
in the middle of my father's
tacky toilet mug.
I could see my father and my sister,
both of whom have been dead for years.
Either they had grown to gigantic size
or I had shrunk. Either way, it felt
like a cheesy science fiction movie.
They were sitting at our wobbly
dining room table, my sister with
her teacup in front of her and my father
with this godawful toilet mug in
front of him.
I yelled and waved
but failed to get their attention.
My father reached for the mug
and, imagining myself being gulped
with his coffee and flowing down his
throat I screamed, "Dad! No! Don't!"
but he still didn't seem to hear me.
Instead of picking up the mug,
however, he pressed the tiny handle
and I swirled around in the coffee
as though I were in a real toilet.
As I swooshed into the hole
I thought of accounts I had read
about dying people entering
a tunnel, going towards a light
and seeing loved ones
who had gone before,
but all I saw
were the goldfish I had as a child
swimming around me
in the warm, murky liquid. - Jeff Barnes
What a wild wonderful ride! Thank you.
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