Liquid Crystals - Poem

[RJDiogenes]

Liquid Crystals
© 2021 Rick Hutchins

Digital displays
are the dead giveaways
that tip off the dreamer
he’s dreaming.
Instead of headlines
or the temp or the time,
they suggest all is not
as it’s seeming.

Random symbols,
strange hieroglyphics,
unnatural shapes
in defiance of physics–
these replace
all the sensible data
with bunkum that
needs a translator.

Seldom is noticed
this fanciful twist
and the dreaming goes on
unabated.
But in some situations
with applied concentration
lucidity can be
reinstated.

That night was a nightmare,
the worst of all nights.
I could not get around it,
try as hard as I might.
I scrolled through the stations
on my car radio,
both AM and FM,
as far as they’d go.
Speedometer, odometer,
I watched them both sharply,
as well as the street signs
racing by darkly.
At the house I checked
all the digital clocks–
the microwave oven,
and the cable TV box.
But none of them morphed
or failed to display
the time or the date
or the name of the day.
And thus was my confidence
shaken,
that I would somehow,
someway awaken.

This nightmare would be neverending.

[Jim Gamma]

Beautiful. And so melancholy. Hugs if wanted.

[RJDiogenes]

Thanks very much, Jim. I appreciate that.