Oddlands Magazine: The Dreaming King by Thomas Zimmerman
The long-nosed wrinkled woman carries sheaves
of grain beneath a dark red sky, and I’ve
been stewing days and nights with bright green leaves,
on river bottoms, tempest-tossed, alive,
bejeweled with myriad fishes’ golden eyes,
aware that new-shorn fields can heal and sleep
in pelts of mist, blood-rich in brown disguise
and veined with dreams that fork and burrow deep.
When last I knelt and died, my scythe-slashed throat
burst into bloom to spout a wine so wild:
then flower buds and sins bedecked the goat,
sweet hymen-blood foretold the changeling child,
and I, forgetful, cried. But now, the wise
old harvest crone reminds me that I’ll rise.
Author Bio:
Thomas Zimmerman works as a community college English teacher. His work has recently appeared in Chimaera Serials, Steel Moon Publishing, and The Willows. His latest chapbook is entitled Darkness We Can See In.
