Distortion Dreams

Distortion Dreams

written by: Eric Danhoff

@troubled_sleep

 

I only go online when my baby is asleep

In my mind, it helps keep her at a safe distance

From the pull of this second world

The invisible, the digital

Its waters are filled with magnets

The birds wings, lead

The fruit of its trees bare seeds with trace radon

When the wife is locked in another game

We dance to music from an unknown source

Pillows hide my phone save an exposed speaker

The baby sometimes sleeps to songs pouring from linen mountains

I don’t want her to know about this place yet

The TV goes off at least twice when I’m home

Silence needs to be appreciated

Maybe more for me than her

I spend fifteen hours a day staring into lighted screens

So much that I dream in distortion

Wipe static from my eyes in morning

Shit HTML

Spit white noise into the sink

Entire lives are now documented

History can be revised

The second world gives you so much more power

And control than the first

How could anyone turn that down?

A stockpile of memory helps keep the mind empty

I don’t ever want to rely on a machine to remind me of what my life was

But the only reason I wanted to write

Was so people knew that I existed

When the baby sees my phone, her nails dig deep into the cover

Dying to open it and look at what’s inside

The first thing anyone ever sees

Is a reflection