Waking

I’m in a cathedral with Sylvia Plath. 
She shows me how crystal-studded walls 
Fall down to myriad sinners 
Praying to red votive candles. 
There is a cough 
And the cathedral shatters. 
Blue sky rushes in 
At the frozen window 
And someone in sweat pants 
Has brought me coffee. 
This is how swiftly 
Consciousness can shift: 
The dream, the solid wall, the voice 
Telling me I’ve had a fever 
All night and was arguing against myself. 
I was not. The heat was the red light of candles. 
I’ve been learning the light of the mind, 
Floating above church pews 
Holding the hand of my guide.

DEBBIE K. TRANTOW

Debbie K. Trantow received her MFA from the University of Minnesota and was awarded the 2001 Gesell Summer Writing Fellowship.  Her chapbook, Hearing Turtle’s Words, was published by Spoon River Poetry Press.  She has been published in Gertrude, Creosote, Poem and other literary magazines, with poems upcoming in Pinyon and NDQ.