I was a tigress, and Peter Pan came to me and took me to Neverneverland. Eventually I grew up, though, and was fading away, back to the real world. Night came, and I knew that with the dawn I would fade completely, leaving all of that world behind. I loved Peter and wanted him to love me back, though, even though I was running out of time to be with him. He offered to scar his face to prove that he did love me, but I knew that it didn’t matter. If I thought that such an action could prove that he loved me, I would be content, but it wouldn’t. I loved him in my way, but that was the start of a deeper love than how Peter could ever love me. His childish mind worked differently than mine, and there was nothing either of us could do about it.
[End Dream]
This is, without a doubt, one of the most poignant dreams I can recall ever having. There was something so innocent and beautiful about it all, a feeling that I just can’t seem to recapture. I actually wrote a poem upon waking. Here’s the polished version, a poem which I probably wouldn’t share except for the fact that I workshopped it in the poetry class that prompted me to start this dream journal in the first place.
Oh, and a quick disclaimer: I’m a fiction writer who focuses on flash fiction and noveling. Poetry is not my strongest suit. Please keep that in mind while reading the following.
Second Star to the Right
When I was a child I loved
like Peter Pan – brief,
flitting through summer darkness,
too much heat to last too long
and knowing with daybreak I must leave.
I wait the way a plucked rose wilts
sky going pink while days flash
like firestorms on Jupiter, or moon’s
mantle, trapped by gravity
as you offer a self-inflicted scar –
you never know what I need.
I am a tigress, only feeling
just before that killing stroke.
I fade awake with sunrise, aging
years in moments and forgetting you,
a star dead eons ago.