Animal Dreams

I could see the land for as far as my eyes could reach. Was I walking or did I have an animal instinct inside myself?

The wheat colored grass crunched underfoot. I sensed that I wore a heavy regal robe or was it a sheer night dress? As if in a flash of a moment, animals started charging up from the water that had no place in this African desert like plane. The images flashed by in a whir. I started running and then a lion latched onto my back. I could feel his hot breath on my neck. At first I wanted to scream and then I started roaring to stand my ground. I growled and roared and puffed my chest out as much as I could, given that my whole body was being subdued under the lion’s power. I was expecting that at any moment I would feel his mighty teeth rip into my flesh, but he seemed to only want to hold on. It seems that I was still able to walk and then I threw myself into the water on my back to try and crush him, drown him, weaken him. I sensed he was growing weaker. He did not seem like a lionly lion. He was still attached to me but I didn’t feel scared. I did not like not being able to see his face. I did not know what he was thinking. I walked, keeping my hands close to where his paws met my neck. I could not release him. As I kept walking, I took my arm, reached behind me and to my amazement, I picked him off my back. He was a limp sack and didn’t seem a lion any longer. I threw his carcass respectfully back into the earth that had mixed with water. The sea that had risen and then flattened. I felt uneasy. I didn’t know how to make sense of this.

Time passed. By now it seemed I was wearing a white cloth that had become soiled and torn by the elements. I walked with very little energy, shoulders slouched, feet like cement blocks. I came upon a woman in a cavern like post. She asked me to explain everything that had happened— how I had arrived and this is where I began.