the tiger dreamt of a stalled school bus
filled with overfed
slow moving
children

the dancing bear dreamt
of the day
when he no longer
would have to dance

the dog dreamt of chasing a cat
the cat dreamt of chasing a mouse

the man dreamt, but I cannot tell you
what he dreamt of
I can only tell you
that men will dream, and then there will be a pencil,
or a paintbrush, a block of clay, or a finely
tuned guitar, and then that man
will work
on turning the dream
into something else

*

it isn’t laughter, or opposable digits
which separate man
from the animal
it is ego, ego, ego