Alec Solomita’s fiction has appeared in the Southwest Review, The Mississippi Review, Southword Journal, and The Drum (audio), among other publications. He was shortlisted by the Bridport Prize and Southword Journal. His poetry has appeared in The Ekphrastic Review, Gnashing Teeth Publishing, The Galway Review, Bold + Italic, Litbreak, Subterranean Blue Poetry, The Blue Nib, Red Dirt Forum, and elsewhere. His chapbook, “Do Not Forsake Me,” was published in 2017 and is still available at Finishing Line Press and Amazon. His first full-length book of poetry was published last April by Kelsay Press. He’s working on another. He lives in Massachusetts.

Dream a Little Dream

Winter’s nights close in
and my dreams,
black waves edged with white,
beguile the subtle hiker
who goes to and fro upon the Earth
and slips with a smile into the depths
beneath my heart to harrow me.

The immortal buccaneer raids my sleep
with an unending series of unnerving
terrors until I wake like a child,
frightened by the shadow of a bathrobe.
The dead come clamoring back. Sweet mother
and father, now a pitiless jury, revive to condemn
my impotence, my stumbling missteps.

Frankly, it doesn’t seem fair. Why won’t my nights
prove a balm for unspeakable grueling days, where
I watch you, my real dear, gibber and weep and
stare with blind eyes at the ceiling for hours in your
own waking dream? Gilead, O Gilead, you’ve let me
down again! The devil clutches my heart as dark
approaches and squeezes it like a sponge while
night comes.