The Obscenity of a Dream

A serial dream
haunts my nights
with dreadful memories
from long ago.

The theme
is the exhumation
and autopsy
of days decayed.

I see the gloom
inside classrooms
and the staff-room's
grisly ghosts.

I wander warily
fearfully imagining
being asked to teach
trapped within a dream.

A clockwork corpse
cast in an obscene drama
desensitised
by traumatic times.

Adolescence
continues to live
as detritus left behind
in my subconscious mind.

Unwanted and despised
an abject failure
superannuated
many years ago.

Nor far to go
to walk home alone
but lengthening
as the scenes change.

While waiting for a train
I see it leave
disconcertingly
from another platform.

Shabby and destitute
I can't afford
to buy even a pie
from the kiosk outside.

Somehow I do arrive
and seek asylum
yearning for sanctuary
like any refugee.