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ISSUE 3
Mario Duarte
Now the Dream Said
the dream is over
but the dreamer
refused to wake.
The dreamer hiked
to Jersey, sat on
the shore, and watched
blue-green waves
surge with fingers
of light—catching
wet wind in its teeth,
whistling like a train
lost in time, in fog.
The dreamer dreamed
of a life lived here
where the air did not
break over the backs
of trees nor birds
clawed clouds into chaff.
Now the dreamer felt
content to sleep, dream,
to forget the white drool
on the corner of his
mouth, and every corner
his feet ever kicked.
Mario Duarte is a Mexican American writer. He is an Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate. His poems and short stories have appeared in Arkana, Bones, Ocotillo Review, Red Ogre Review, and Write Launch. New work is forthcoming in Bayou, and the iō Literary Journal. In 2024, his poetry collection “To the Death of the Author” and his short story collection "Monkeys" will be released.