empty dirt vista
I turn to her
she asks how did

we get here? I say
I think I’m asleep
dreaming she says

she thought that
too then a fierce
wind all is gray

dust the monkey
yells cut! he tells
the camera-man

they have captured
reality truly next
thing I know I’m

here face down in
the water washing
ashore on a sand-

bar she is fetal
naked the monkey
kneels over camera-

man’s corpse like an
alter-boy weeping
she yells shut-up

you ***** little ape!
the monkey howls
bites her leg she

crawls to one end
of the ******* I
to the other all is

water the monkey—
television actor now
director of acclaimed

historical dramas
lamenting camera-
man was the Da Vinci

of modernity I’m
thinking Da Vinci?
yeah the guy who

never finished
anything I ask how
did we get here?

she says she must
be asleep dreaming
I’m thinking yes that

must be all there
is to it—simply
asleep dreaming