Waking the Sandman 12

In her final days
a caregiver expressed
incredulity
that she had ever
skated majestically

but she did,
on roller skates
(when that was still a thing),
and she was a judge,
and that was
a whole different era,
one that's hard
to track down now,
but it was real
and this lost era,
this lost dream,
still captivates me,
even if all I know
in the barest hint
of what it had been

Waking the Sandman 11

Do you remember
the dream of Camelot?
Well, she cared a lot
and then he was shot

Waking the Sandman 10

I had a dream,
after she died,
and in that dream
she affirmed
everything good about her

But that still didn't make
reckoning with her life
any easier

Waking the Sandman 9

Jeannine, I dream in lilac time,
I dream a dream that will reclaim time,
that was stolen in time,
times past in lilac time,
in Lily's time,
Lily's time after your time
but at the same time
she borrows from your time
and it makes my time
easier time

Waking the Sandman 8

One day Romeo and his grandson
played the violin together

Well, actually, Romeo played a real one,
and his grandson didn't

But it was still a dream come true
for Romeo's daughter, the grandson's mother

There was only one problem;
there really wasn't anywhere
for the grandson to play,
once he played a real one

His parents looked and looked
for years and years,
but eventually, even the understanding
band director suggested he take up
something else

And so he did;
the grandson took up
the melaphone, and then
the French horn;
neither was particularly like
a violin

But the grandson persisted,
for a while

Until the violin inside him
was shattered,
like waking from a dream,
realizing that nothing you experienced
was real after all

Waking the Sandman 7

Romeo, Romeo,
where've you gone?
headed down to America
where I'll ply my trade
giving haircuts for a living

Romeo, Romeo,
where've you gone?
came back to Canada
where  I won't feel
so overwhelmed

Romeo, Romeo,
where've you gone?
headed back to America
where I'll work in the mills
like just another of my kind

Romeo, Romeo,
what is your kind?
French-Canadian,
and Catholic, too,
wouldn't think those're
persecuted, did you?

Romeo, Romeo,
what did you dream?
I don't know anymore
and I prefer not to dwell on it
or I'll just feel homesick,
and that solved nothing last time

Waking the Sandman 6

The Sandman plays the violin;
of course he does,
of course he plays the violin,
so he's a connoisseur,
a connoisseur of violins,
of the craft of making violins,
and he knows all the masters,
the masters of crafting
a truly exquisite violin

One day he stepped into an airport
and overheard a discussion
between a TSA agent and a young man;
the TSA agent was asking the young man
to open a case, and the Sandman guessed
so that the young man could prove
that the contents matched the case,
that there was a violin
in the violin case

The young man opened the case
and revealed that there was a violin
in the violin case, and the TSA agent
was satisfied,
and then the young man volunteered
that his grandfather had made this violin,
and the TSA agent asked who
the young man's grandfather was,
and the young man said,
"Romeo Laramee"

I don't know, maybe the TSA agent
expected the young man to say,
"Stradivarius,"
but what were the odds of that?

Clearly the TSA agent accepted
the young man's answer with a friendly
but blank reception, because
"Romeo Laramee"
does not mean the same as
"Stradivarius,"
which is not an insult to
"Romeo Laramee,"
but to say that there are more names
available in this field than
"Stradivarius,"
and that perhaps it was a little silly
for the TSA agent to expect to know
the name the young man produced,
unless somehow the TSA agent knew
a lot of violin craftsman

But what are the odds of that?