Talk to Mike Grotsky on the Fictionville blog
Atom
wants to change the world
with his work.
He wonders,
How can you tell
when your dreams
are really burdens
in disguise?
His old teacher
comes to him, pulls
his ear to the cracks,
reminding him to stay
at the margins.
So he hears
the chattering teeth
of wooden devils.
He has nightmares, sweet
dreams, demons
in the sheets . . .
They show their ass
and plasticine angels
come pouring out.
Changing,
one into the other-
moods
seasons
lovers?
Atom remembers Athena.
How she changed
day into night into day again.
Changed him out of his
squeaky mind
while she slid
out of her starry clothes.
How lonely she could be.
Atom shrugged,
felt the shift – It’s
coming back to me now,
her marble skin,
her fierce heart.
Weighed against a
handful of dreams
across a lavender sky.
But they say Zeus
never got over it.
The burden was too great.
Crushed trying to make
a permanent arrangement
from a temporary emotion.