Contributor Series 3: Resolution and Resolve, What Dreams Are Made Of
Contributor Series 3: Resolution and Resolve
What Dreams Are Made Of
By Neil Ellman
Mother dreamed of numbers
not people or lost loves
as the rest of us do
3-7-6
she would announce in the morning
and father would, in the days before
it was legal, place the bet
at the local barber shop.
The night before I was born
she dreamed 2-03
and the hospital room had the
very same number—
Good things come in threes,
she said, and the bet was made.
She won, of course,
or that's what she told me
a hundred times.
Father dreamed colors
the kind on jockey silks
and Fridays were our time
to be together at the ponies
are what we called it
me searching for winning tickets
among the discarded dreams
on the grandstand floor
and he studying the racing form
for clues and symbols that
would interpret his dreams
and make them real.
He won, of course,
or that's what he told me
every Friday night.
I still dream of them occasionally
dressed in numbers and motley silks
their dreams and mine
awakened by chance.
Neil Ellman's poems An Excerpt From the Diary of a Man Growing Old and The Morning After were published at vox poetica in 2009.
What Dreams Are Made Of
By Neil Ellman
Mother dreamed of numbers
not people or lost loves
as the rest of us do
3-7-6
she would announce in the morning
and father would, in the days before
it was legal, place the bet
at the local barber shop.
The night before I was born
she dreamed 2-03
and the hospital room had the
very same number—
Good things come in threes,
she said, and the bet was made.
She won, of course,
or that's what she told me
a hundred times.
Father dreamed colors
the kind on jockey silks
and Fridays were our time
to be together at the ponies
are what we called it
me searching for winning tickets
among the discarded dreams
on the grandstand floor
and he studying the racing form
for clues and symbols that
would interpret his dreams
and make them real.
He won, of course,
or that's what he told me
every Friday night.
I still dream of them occasionally
dressed in numbers and motley silks
their dreams and mine
awakened by chance.
Neil Ellman's poems An Excerpt From the Diary of a Man Growing Old and The Morning After were published at vox poetica in 2009.
Posted by Annmarie at 1/11/2010 12:55 AM 
Categories: today's words, Contributor Series 3
Tags: destiny Neil Ellman dreams colors chance numbers
Categories: today's words, Contributor Series 3
Tags: destiny Neil Ellman dreams colors chance numbers
another strong poem! yay!
love the motley silks
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Thank you Jessie. It's nice to know that I have at
least one reader (plus my wife and daughter, o
course), and I appreciate my first "Yay."
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A really poignant poem, drawn together with those last two wonderful lines: "... their dreams and mine / awakened by chance." Lovely.
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