Sonnets to Morpheus ["I know kung fu"]

“I know kung fu.” It won’t bring back the world. 5:15 a.m.: I wake from another dream, the same as every dream. A man builds a ship in my chest. Each of the sailors carries by her breast a picture of her sister. The ship is not the image of a ship. Beyond its sails there are no stars. The water is only water because it’s black. 5:15 a.m. Perhaps you’ve seen me practicing my moves in the empty prison yard and wondered whether you were the dreamer conjuring me into existence from the bare desire to caress a phantom ship and my death the death of your desire.