You May Be Me

by John Simon

Last night I had the strangest dream.
It was as strange as it could be.
I dreamt that I was everyone and
     everyone was me.
I dreamt that I was dreaming me and
     also dreaming you.
I dreamt that I was everything, a tree,
     the stars, a shoe.

In my dream I had the thought,
     "This may be just a dream".
Then in my dream I discussed with you
     what this thought might mean.
If we are both in this same dream then
     who is dreaming us ?
Is it you that is dreaming me or
     is it me that we must trust?
Perhaps you think that it's your dream
     while I think that it's mine.
Or maybe it's my dog's dream and
     were a figment of his mind.

All the people in my dreams are me
     though this they may not realize.
In fact the me that's in my dream can't see
     through the other me's disquise.
So the me that's in my dream thinks
     the others are not he.
He lives a lonely dream life for this connection
     he can't see.

I know that I have had dreams that I thought
     were surely real
Then I woke to find that I had dreamt
     all that was revealed.
So now I know that when asleep I can not tell
     that it's a dream.
So how can I ever tell if I'm awake or
     dreaming one more scene.

Since anything I think, see, or hear I can dream
     I think, see or hear.
There can be nothing in my awake life that
     in a dream can not appear.
So right this moment as I write,
     I think that I'm awake.
But I am clear that to be too sure
     would be an extremely big mistake.

You might say,"Okay, big deal,
     so what if this is just a dream ?
Who cares -- what difference can it make
     in life's bigger scheme ?"
But I say to you that it is a big deal
     if we can't tell when were awake
Cause if this is now a dream,
     and we're being dream't -
     then you and I are one-- for goodness sake!

If its your dream and your dreaming me
     then I am really you.
And if it's vice-versa then on the other foots
     the shoe.
In a dream scene all characters flow
     from the dreamer's mind.
They are all one with the dreamer
     who dreamt them up this time.

Each dreamt up character thinks
     that he's a distinctly separate entity
Since his relationship to the dreamer
     is something he can't see.
So if I can get that we are all one
     using the dream analogy
Then I need never fear anything again
     since there is nothing there but me.

To try to out do someone else or be right
     and make them wrong
Would be like trying to beat-up myself and
     be weak while being strong.
So maybe all of life is just a dream,
     and we are both the dreamer and the dreamt
Like a stone that hits the water creating
     ripples outward sent.

Maybe each time that we wake up
     in peace from the dream were in
We join the one that dreamt us and
     then a larger dream begins.
When I wake up from my dream and
     observe all that I have dreamt
I can clearly see that everyone in my dream
     was me -- can this be enlightnment?
If I can see that everything in my dream is me
     and yet not know for sure when I dream
Then right now I may be everything
     -- wow ain't that a scream!

So my friend, it is with the greatest pleasure,
     that I now tell you that reading my poem
     has been your dream.
You see, I never wrote a word of it.
You've created this whole scene.

© 1999 Dr. John Simon
Woodside Animal Hospital and Bird Clinic