Dreamsketch (from Birdhouses of the Heart)

All night long they come to visit
like words for poems I never wrote

clowns

somersaulting through my sleep
juggling dreams as they dance inside my head

I want to share so many beautiful things with them
brightly colored streamers bearing my wishes

lavender and blue confetti tossed their way
as the little fellows merrily jump through hoops
questions springing up
wherever they touch down

I shout the answers like someone drowning
or pleading for the attention of a lost love
but the noise of their tumbling muffles my cries

The poet in me keeps singing
songs that only another poet can hear
notes receding into the night
as my mind seeks to conquer
what my life could not

little clowns of hope walking tight ropes
through dreams without end