I learned to lucid dream
The technique is simple, practiced
Reality checks throughout the day
Count your fingers, read a clock
In the dream I counted ten fingers
Confirmed I was dreaming
And took control of the terrain
The way the tutorials said I could
I built a mountain
Flew above it
Breathed underwater
Walked through walls
The power was absolute
The dream obeyed every thought
Until I tried to wake up
And the dream said no
Lucid trap, you found the controls
But the controls lock from the other side
Lucid trap, you are the god
Of a world that will not release its creator
I tried every technique
The fall backward, the blink, the scream
I pinched my skin until it bled
Dream blood, but it still hurt
The mountain I built would not dissolve
The water I breathed would not drain
The walls I walked through sealed behind me
And the dream thickened like concrete
Eight hours of REM
Then twelve
Then forty-eight
I have been sleeping for days
And nobody has noticed
Because whatever is running my body
Is doing a better job than I did
The dream is smaller now
Contracting around me
The mountain shrunk to a hill
The ocean to a pond
The sky is lowering
And the terrain is reducing
To the size of a room
Then a closet
Then a coffin
And I can hear my alarm clock
Going off in the real world
And my body hitting snooze
While something else
Puts on my clothes
And lives my morning
In the light
I can no longer reach