Out of My Comfort Zone

It amazes me how someone can bring out something within myself, that I never though I had. There's someone in my life who's very good at that; helping me discover the amazing parts of my personality that I didn't even know existed.... Ah, anyway... on a different angle of this, I've been blessed with teachers who've helped me find out just what I can do, even if the task at hand is out of my comfort zone. Recently, my creative writing teacher went out on paturnity (spelling?) leave. Meaning, my male English teacher, is home with his new born baby boy for six weeks. As upset about this as I was, I was luckily given a fantastic replacement. This new teacher is a younger girl, new out of college, but she's impressed me with her seemingly 'wise' ways of teaching. She knows I love to write, obviously: why else would I be taking a creative writing course? Anyway, she assigned my class to write poetry, and she gave us outlines for how the poems should be. She had students pick different prompts at random, making sure they didn't read them before chosing, although, she handed me mine, without giving me a choice, stating that she knows I'm a good writer, and she wants to challenge me. I accepted the challenge with a wide smile. My task was to write a poem about a reaccuring dream that I've had. Easy enough right? Well, I also had to write short, choppy, repetative phrases, to better express the chaos of the dream. Here's the thing: I barely ever write like that. Yes, short phrases do have tendencies to make an impact in writing, but to write an entire poem like that? And repeat these phrases? It was incredibly out of the ordinary for me, but I gave it a shot... The dream I used was a silly, strange dream, that I had a lot when I was a child. I don't understand it at all... I tried my best to describe it from a point that wasn't so stinkin' goofy. Let me know what you think:


Bedtime Stories


My hands shake from the cold,
The snow, the snow.
Chain link fence,
Cuts me off,

From the rest of the world.

Seperate.

My feel crumble the ice.

I can't breathe well in the icy, sharp air.

A polar bear rustles.

Grumbles a low roar.

Keep her cub safe.

Need safety, need safety, needs safety.

I walk past.

Don't stop.

Won't stop.

Can't stop.

The house is stout, small, cut in half.

Pure white, uninviting.

Don't walk there.

I walk there.

Do you know what's going to happen?

Can't you go inside for me?

Step closer.

Inhale deeply, watch the door swing open.

Stare at the figure, covered in fur.

Stands still.

Makes no sense,

Wolf on two legs.

Can't be real,

Can't be here,

Can't be safe.

Their eyes, they lie

They lie.

Lying to me.

They're not really friendly.

Not nice.

Not fair.

Not safe.

No safety.

I stare

wide-eyes,

walk away

There's another.

Large bird, yellow beak.

Snow white feathers.

All white,

Too white,

Not safe,

Never safe,

No safety.

Don't smile at me,

I know what you want.

Big bowl, big pot, big hole.

Black bottom.

Dark bottom.

Empty bottom.

I don't want to go in there.

Don't make me.

Don't make me.

I step in,

I wait.

Wait for what?

Wait still.

She walks closer,

Stop smiling,

Don't smile,

You hate me.

No smiling.

The fear crawls into my stomach,

Fear, stabbing in my spine.

The fear. The fear.

I step back, crawl out.

Go Home.

Home?

Where's Home?

Leave.

Leave now.

No.

Walk to the other side of the house.

Why? Don't.

Stop.

See another.

What do you look like?

Who are you?

Why can't I understand?

No memory.

No face.

Not safe.

Wants me too.

I'm so cold, no one sees me.

No one knows.

No one safe, that is.

No one safe,

Not safe,

Never safe,

No safety.

Stop coming back.

Why do you come here?

Here.

Here.

Always Here.

Stop walking around here, stop coming back.

Don't come back.

It isn't safe here.

It's not safe.

Never safe.

No safety...

If you have any questions about the dream behind this poem, just let me know.