traveling dreams

last night i dreamt i was on a train moving across a green grassy plain that grew beside a crystal ocean. immense ferns grew along the seaside, shading the beaches with their fronds, but all the scenery was difficult to see, blurred in the motion of the train. my companions around me spoke very little, but stared out their windows enraptured by the scenery. i too stared out the windows until i began to fade away into sleep.

on the train i dreamt i was in a hot and crowded mall, with throbbing music that shook the floor and the walls. there were no windows in the room. The floor was covered with sand, and the walls and ceilings were a thin, fibrous wood. No one in the room was talking, they were all dancing, gyrating their bodies, some fucking hard against the walls in the corners of the room. the smell was of sweat and semen and old cigarettes and salt. a yellowgreen light filled the room.

the train jolted me suddenly awake. the great speed it had been gathering from the many miles of travel across the seaside slowed. everyone on the train leaned forward, straining their seatbelts from the force. i pushed hard against the seat in front of me to keep my body from smashing against it. and as the train lost its speed, more and more, the cycads and the golden beaches and the turquoise waters came into sharper focus, and the train's destination, once too far in the distance to see, came up upon the horizon, its neon lights reflecting red and blue on the light brown haze that filled the air.

and i awoke from the dreams slowly. and when i sat up upon the edge of my bed, blinking the sleep from my eyes, i could not tell if this night’s dreams were actually my reality and if i now continued to sleep.