An Orwellian dream last night with an interesting psychological dimension, I thought. Dawn

Night had fallen in my dream, and the taste
of dread hung in thick air that clung to me.
Terror spread like a contaminant across the wide plaza
where I stood, transfixed.

Belongings had been ripped from my vacationer’s bag.
What remained was in complete disarray –
a match for the mood of my mind, I considered.
My eyes fell on the moving shadow.

I had thought it to be a nocturnal creature
of some sort, rummaging for food - she was
scraping the concrete for crumbs, but as she moved
closer I saw the ravaged girl.

Malnourished, bruised, beaten, her soul begging
to be released from a fate she did not earn,
she scampered by. I scooped her frail form
into my tired arms, my soul

Screaming at the injustice, society’s shame.
I held her and would not let go, aware that I
had precious little to offer, having just come
from the Visitor’s Center,

Where they sent me packing with my bags,
laughing at my inability to remember the code
(travelers in the New Order must recite
their "protection code" on command).

Denied entry into the Safe House (they used to be
called hotels), I shivered, dripping with sweat
and gripped by immobility. I could not remember
any alternate route, any other way.

Hollow-eyed and bony, the little girl wiped
my tears and I pulled her closer against the sirens
that raced in every direction around us. We slept
on concrete, dreamless and weeping.

*

I woke to the soft touch of your hand.
Out of uniform, your presence took the shape
and form of a distant past, when love, not order,
was the measure of a man.

Wordless, I wished for the woman
I would have become if not… My eyes
caught the glint of deep sorrow in your tears
and in that moment I could not judge.

You led me and the girl, who seemed
to be one with me, underground, where I found
familiar faces of people who had hated me
for no reason at all then.

Day into night into day you stayed beside.
You told me stories; you poured your heart in song.
You rocked me until the fear lifted like a fog,
until the girl and I became one again.

I was lost and found in love.