Confinement
cast in barren walls;
smooth-polished floors
of wood
A spartan space
Devoid of comfort,
coloration,
but for a single blue-gray
drape that stirs –
alive with motion –
draws attention
to stretched-wide
sliding doors of glass
Step through…
(bare feet exposed
to metallic bite
of the threshold’s sill…)
& pass without…
A cloistered deck awaits….
(O, secondary ruse…)
Gaze up, neck craned…
Witness to impossibility,
to the unprecedented –
A looming verticality
of storm-gray water…
A towering sea-wall
barricade that sways & ripples,
looms & eddies,
a-swim in motion overhead…
Extend a hand…
trace white curls & lines
of foam…
touch small leaves of ochre
caught in spiral currents,
& recognize…
(with sudden indrawn breath)
the trap’s new-altered
height & width & length.
Although recast, reshaped,
confinement yet
remains.
— C.Birde, 10/21
4 Comments
Erruh?! I get the feeling like you just sleep-walked into a less-than-hot shower (stall). Maybe you haven’t showered in a few days (or weeks), and your conscience was tapping your shoulder. That’s all that comes to mind. I’m bone dry on philosophical metaphors.
😜 I see it as a dream of frustration & restriction. But to each, their own!
What is the frustration and restriction you see in it? Carrie to elaborate, Birde? 😀
I somehow do not recall reading the portions that actually said “confinement” and “trap,” including the bit about the “trap” becoming larger/taller and remaining confining. But, even if there is confinement and some feeling of being trapped, there is also a fairly gentle spray of water you are free to play with and marvel at which does not seem to threaten you with its temperature or flooding the “trap” chamber. Had you said the water was rising to consume you, then, perhaps, I’d say this is fair reason to be concerned. Yet, sometimes, dreams in which we are consumed suggest something we take interest in or are curious about which is soon to–if it hasn’t already–become a consuming obsession.
I think I had a dream in which I was swallowed up in a deep water setting at an early age (not necessarily the first dream I recall of that nature, in which I was afraid of wetting the bed and awoke under…er…water, swimming to the bathroom). If it came before my accident at an uncle’s pool, in which I nearly drowned after sitting at the bottom for an uncertain amount of time, then it was foreboding (and I had no clue, anyway). If it came after that incident, it was likely a dream about my habit of becoming engrossed in something; a cartoon, my artistic passion, astrology…something along those lines. In the latter case, the dream was either a warning to not let myself become so consumed or a reassuring notion telling me it’s okay to fill myself up with some interest…or the “reassuring notion” was the voice of temptation, trying to seduce me into an obsession.
Your “trap” sounds very much like a shower stall. And, sometimes, when I get into a shower, it feels slightly scary and uncomfortable. Definitely, any metal edges are intimidating; a few times I’ve scraped some part of my legs/feet against them. Also, there may be a subtle feeling of loneliness once you enter the stall. You are separating yourself from the world in there. If you enter the stall without knowing some comforting soul exists outside it, you may feel somewhat trapped in isolation. But, if you know, when you get out, there is someone out there to embrace and support you, you likely would not feel so bad and look forward to drying off to rejoin that person (or persons). Aaaand, one more thing; I cannot recall ever taking a shower in which I felt complete comfort entering the situation, including confronting the water (spray). No matter how I try, the temperature and pressure are never just right. So, that can be discouraging.
Maybe you are a cat-woman who doesn’t favor water/baths; so you bristle a little before submitting to getting wet. [You certainly did not go on to say you enjoy the (feeling of) the water, other than marveling at its appearance.]