Dreams

The twilight times between pre-sleep
and when deep slumber descends
appear as I grow further into my
elderly years, to expand and in response
my thoughts turn to many matters not
under any deliberate influence from me
it seems, but in random exploration of
the things that have impressed my mind
over the course of the days, weeks, months
and years of my life. Then, when sleep
finally descends I enter another universe
entirely, one not quite rational nor
readily explicable, but drawing me to
its alter-reality where I do not necessarily
revisit the past, but the past intrudes on
the present and within that landscape
the ghosts of yesterday present themselves
as though the intervening years had no
impact whatever as they casually resume
their lives in the most pedestrian of ways
and I simply accept the strange normalcy
of it all for in that alter-reality their
presence appears expected and time
and intimate personal history irrelevant.