The Dante Trip
(Mike's Dream)
The auditorium went black, muffling
The odd roar. From the cool
Darkness behind heavy curtains
Unseen hands pushed Mike on stage.
His black tux dotted the white crescent.
As the audience waited, he saw faces
Float up through the footlights: His
Parents, he thinks, and some schoolmates.
They were familiar faces. A wife,
Apparently, and one child.
An empty seat was left for a man
Outside his mother never married.
The light made him blind and the voices
Were yawns of muted sound.
Still, he heard a woman ask
If he could love her.
Soon all the people he would someday meet
Were flinging questions from the dark.
"I will not betray you," he said.
"Yes professor, I will pass your exam."
The empty seat floated then affixed itself
In the murmuring crowd. This was not well planned.
Then he who will never learn to swim
Swam to the surface and began.
