[tell me about the dream]

Oliver Carmichael

after Richard Siken

To tell it twice is to tell

it different: start by kissing me

and I can get out of these wet clothes, walk about,

my body mine again, the horses returned to horses, the

night saying here, more strawberries, more champagne, the dream

all dressed up with no where to go. Or start where

the girl runs towards morning, towards the last payphone and we

hope she has enough change in her pocket to pull

the boy back from his revenge quest. Tell me the

boy looks back; tell me the girl doesn’t disappear, their bodies

emerging into sunlight. Call the hummingbirds out

of the lion’s mouth and we can drive anywhere, the end of

the road another chance to kiss me as if the

car wasn’t filling with water, as if the lake—

OLIVER CARMICHAEL lives in County Durham, England. He is the winner of the 2024 Winchester Poetry Prize and the 2024 Aurora Prize for Writing. He is the recipient of the Michael Donaghy Award and a graduate of Arvon’s Advanced Writing Programme.