Your Dreams Explained

Originally published in Poetry Quarterly, Fall 2011

Rotting teeth mean money troubles,
molars loose in the mouth like coins
rattling in a car cup-holder, never enough
for the toll. If you dream of being a fish,
a trout, say, swimming upstream,
you might be anxious about work
or the fact that your wife’s skin
suddenly reminds you of scales;
you catch yourself wondering
how she’d look hooked at the gums.
Waking up wet with visions
of Ted from next door means you’d like
to have sex with Ted from next door.
Vegetables represent repressed anger
toward your mother, who’s to blame
for your cauliflower complexion, your
irrational fear of cooked fruit.
Flying – a sign of a lover’s betrayal.
You are gravity, abandoned.