Childhood experiences | Mental health
Running to Safety
A poem about a recurring dream
At the bottom of an up-hill road A looming sense that time is slowed The strange man begins the chase And the small child rushes to its safe place
The child’s legs almost give up The man laughs because the child can’t run Grandpa appears on the doorstep As the child shouts for help
“Get him!” the child shouts Hoping to get fast inside the house “Grandpa, get him!” the child pleads The man’s hands turn into thorns and weeds
So close now to grandpa’s embrace A gust of wind knocks the child down on its face A quick breath, a blinding beam The child wakes up, it was all a scary dream
I wrote this poem inspired by Jason Provencio’s article on recurring dreams. I wasn’t sure if I was going to share it here, but after reading Sara Larca’s most recent poem on dreams, I thought I should just go ahead and post mine too.
I was 5 years old the first time I had this dream of the man chasing me on my way to my grandparents’ house. Unfortunately I was also talking in my sleep when the dream occurred, and one night my sister heard me saying “get him”. She told our mother, who wanted to know if an adult has tried to chase me. She also said that if I had this dream again, she would take me to the priest for a blessing just in case it’s the devil who’s chasing me.
I got more scared because of that, so the next times that this dream reoccurred I did my best to control it. Sometimes I would wake up, and other times I would be chased in silence. I didn’t want anyone to know about it, because I was afraid of what might happen to me if the priest said that devil was indeed chasing me.
My grandfather has always been one of my safe people, who loved me unconditionally. He did his best to protect us from the abuse and he would make sure we would spend as many hours with him and grandma as possible. I still get dreams about being with him when I’m too stressed or sad. I also have had some “unexplainable” dreams of him.
I haven’t had that recurring dream in ages. After years of therapy and inner work I finally understood who that man was. I think that this realization resolved the dream.