Afternoon Dreams
surreal adventures and the ecstasy of color
AFTERNOON DREAMS
Friday afternoon brings intoxicating dreams Lids fall heavy as eyes swim Floating with the luxury Of daytime slumber. Sleepy with gentle thoughts, My head rolls on the pillow Searching for an avenue Of delicious rest. A corridor of fragmented ideas, Linked by loose associations, Merges to form a striking story One image after another Creating a stream of related visions. There is no sound Just an ecstasy of color Vivid violets and vermilion Melt into greens, cool blues With yellow hues. Hypnogogic scenes emerge, surreal, An orange wild west town Complete with horses and gunfighters Blooms into rainbows of waterfalls Surging over a mountaintop With dolphins and mermaids. The imagination enthralls In this state between The unconscious and awareness Rich touchable textures Tempt wandering fingers Hungry for more sensation. One awakens groggy Out of sync with space and time Hung over from brain chemistry Thrown into the bland world. The blades of the electric fan Hum, circulating the air You hear distant birdsong Punctuating the silence. You are back in the waking world Unremarkable in many ways, Cars driving past your window. Planes flying overhead After having experienced The lucid and strange menagerie Held in your mind. © 2026 Stephanie M. Vargo
I loved the contrast between the vivid, almost touchable world of the dream and the ordinary sounds waiting on the other side of waking. “Thrown into the bland world” really captured that strange little loss.
This feels like standing with one foot in the subconscious and the other in the disappointing light of day.