Trapped in a red dream

In a world of red;
Fragments of a dream undone,
Nowhere leads to home.

I’m… somewhere, though I can’t tell where. Black. Red. That’s all there is. Not a sound, not really, just the echo of my own footsteps… or are they even mine? It doesn’t matter. I blink and—there it is, again—the red rose. Again. Too perfect, too bright. It shouldn’t be here, but it is. Silky petals, so soft they must be fake, almost glowing, bleeding their colour into the air around them. No thorns. Why no thorns? A rose should have thorns. It feels wrong… out of place. Is it floating? I can’t tell. Maybe it’s me who’s floating. My hand stretches out to touch it—wait, no. That’s not right. Something shifts, jerks my focus.

Red rose without thorns;
Floating in the blackened air,
Too soft to be real.

Red berries. They dangle, sway just slightly, so red, like drops of blood frozen mid-fall. They don’t belong here. Hawthorn berries? Yeah, yeah that’s what they are. Why are they here? Hanging. Waiting. I want to pluck one, taste it maybe, but—no. Not safe. They look like they’d taste like iron. Bitterness. Do berries even taste like iron? I don’t know. I think… maybe they do. They shimmer in the dark, this glossy red, almost inviting. A trap. Gotta keep moving.

Hawthorn berries hang;
Blood drops frozen in the dark,
Bitter in the night.

Something brushes past me—smooth, too smooth. It’s red too. It’s silk. A cloth, red silk, draping down from… from where? Can’t see the top. It’s just there, like a curtain, but no stage, no audience. It shifts, barely. Touching it feels like slipping into a memory I can’t quite catch. I try to hold onto the thought, but it slips away, just like the cloth. It’s gone. It’s still here, but gone. Don’t ask me how. My fingers are empty now, though.

Red silk softly falls;
Whispers of a fading dream,
Slips away from touch.

The path, if it’s a path, dark, black, empty. Then… then there’s this leaf. A red maple leaf. Still, like it’s been pressed flat between the pages of a book I can’t read. But I see it. I see it clear. The veins in the leaf look like cracks, tiny, sharp cracks splitting through the red. Red. Of course, it’s red. That’s all there is. But why this leaf? Why now? It’s autumn, I think. Or maybe not. I forget. It’s too perfect, like the rose, but this one feels colder. Fragile. It’s waiting for something. For me? I don’t know.

Maple leaf in red;
Cracks spreading through quiet veins,
Fragile autumn waits.

I’m still walking, I think, though maybe I’m not…

What kind of dream world would you like to visit?

Hi, anyone still with me to the end, can you let me know if my feature image of the silk cloth appears at the top of the post. I think I’m having problems with it being displayed.

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  Darkness, Power and Beauty
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