1.
You hum in the routine of lying
down. Your mind rumbles in the murmur
of bass voices. You are the mumble
of innumerable bees. You count
mutton and lamb. Muscles twitch
then relax in an easy mathematics.
Slow tremor in Mozart’s
most famous adagio movements.
2.
Eye motion stops. Breath and heart
meld into one. Nothing magniloquent
or magnificent here. Memory consolidates
meanings as NREM musses your hair
near the dream and nightmare mountain.
Mimes welcome you
in your meanderings at its base.
Mutterings begin as you mull over a climb.
3.
Meanwhile blood pressure motors down.
Ancient Egyptians hand you medicine
to mend the previous day’s mishaps.
You’re almost mummified.
Moreover, your hormones minister
to membranes and marrow, mediating
between the mustache and molars,
the midbrain and medulla oblongata.
4.
In your dreams you’d like to muzzle
all the misfits, maniacs, and murderers.
Even the mawkish drive you mad
in their back-and-forth misgivings,
but you’re immobilized into immunity,
into the realm of visions and magicians,
matriarchs and martyrs—the marvelous mines
a balm and alarm you reach to comprehend.