Troubled Sleep

Nightmare fumes around my face like camphor in a sac
Your shoes are open graves I stumble on
Your socks, dead birds to gather up
This is the bottleneck. With every breath
I draw, the rings
Constrict. beside me in the bed
You're like a third rail, rigid with current
I listen to your mutterings, sort through the gibberish
For signs. You thrash, cry out, wrestle with the sheet
Underneath the El, the house shakes…
I dream my mother's dream
From my grandmother's bed: the eels are all
Escaping from the kitchen sink…
A blue volt wracks the sky
Arcing you awake. Our eyes meet
The light fails. We plunge through tunnels
Pitched headlong. Brakes squeal like pigs