Upon Seeing a Scene from a Recurrent Childhood Nightmare in a Painting by Dali

The nightmare was of me sitting alone in my bed in my room looking through a door through which no one was, no one ever had been, and no one ever would be. This absolute aloneness was the most terrifying terror I have ever had.

But, having seen this picture, this snapshot of my dream, I realize that someone has walked this path before. We are, apparently, not as alone as we think we are. In dreams, space and time are bent so that our fingertips may reach out and touch those fingertips of our fellow souls who wander in the same dreamspace that we do.

I have been thinking
and you and I are not so different
from fireflies as we thought.
You drew me to you with a brilliant light
from deep within.

The light that even now
illuminates the dark corners of my soul
and reveals what lies there.
And it is not so formidable, not so ugly
as I had feared.