THE TRAPPER

It felt like a dream

but wasn't one.

Maybe it felt dream-like

because someone had

accidentally fallen asleep 

on a couch somewhere

and their little bit of oblivion

somehow filtered into

my world. I don’t know.

But at the time 

I went about setting 

the trap I was setting

I knew nothing about

any day-time dozer.

I only knew that the trap 

was about me 

taunting trust.

And even though 

it wasn’t actually a dream 

it might as well have been

because in dreams

every part of the dream 

is a part of us, they say.

Anyway...what I mean 

to say is: once I woke up 

to what I was doing 

in the non-dream-dream

I clearly saw that

I was the “bear,”

the trap and the trapper

all at once.

And, that while I was the one

that got caught in the jaws 

of my own entrapment,

the so-called dozer,

wherever they were, 

managed to remain unscathed

by any intended subterfuge 

that hung heavy in the air.

All the dozer was really doing 

was getting caught 

up on some 

much needed shut-eye—

which, coincidentally, was 

what saved them 

from getting entangled

in an oblivion 

that wasn't obliged 

to finding any solace 

in trusting trust.