Once She Dreamed

Once she dreamed she was Mileva,

the long haired Serbian girl

who married Albert Einstein. She

quietly watched when Einstein twisted

the absolutely

flat space with his hands.

She watched

when Einstein broke the absolute

flow of time into pieces and

spun them around at different

speeds.

She was there when Einstein

reconstructed the shattered universe.

As he became greater and greater

he grew modest and tender.

When finally the world came to

touch his hands

Mileva smiled and left.

She said she still liked to live

in her own absolute space

and move at her own pace.

Once she dreamed she was

Francis Gilot.

the young woman who married

Pablo Picasso.

She saw Picasso with the tip of

his brush

tear apart the calm, surrounding

the objects on his canvas.

She saw faces turning into cubes

and cones.

When Picasso was engulfed

in cubes of fame

Gilot left.

She said she wouldn’t become a cube.

Then she dreamed of Jeanny,

who married Karl Marx.

Jeanny read stories to her

hungry children

as Marx fed the hungry of the

world in his imagination.

As his beard curled more and more,

Jeanny saw Marx grow into a

prophet trying to unseat the lords.

When infuriated gods came

upon him Jeanny stood at the door,

wondering.

Last night she dreamt nothing.

The man she married

had quietly disappeared.

She says he was confused, depressed

and needed care.

A sad vacuum expanded in her

and burst.

Ajmer Rode