Argument Abandonment

Why the brain rehearses terror to itself
Isn’t very clear, least of all to the brain,
And yet it does, often nightly, its whole life,

Beginning with childhood abandonment dreams
And continuing through countless dreams of death.
Mostly, however, bad dreams are arguments,

Which would seem to make theoretical sense,
Dreams as barristers or Roman orators,
But get real. It’s not that kind of rehearsal.

The arguments of nightmares are sooty flares
Of incorrigible emotions burning
Nearly inarticulately in shadows,

Quarrels with apparitions who are and aren’t
People the brain recognizes from its life.
From the outside, nightmares look little different

From any eyelid flickering, to the point
Of actual crying out or whimpering,
But from the inside, might as well be in hell.

The brain does this to itself. The brain needs to
Do this to itself. Even in a good life,
In the best of times, the brain torments itself.

You know this is true for you, if you’re human.
There’s no argument you’ve woken from nightmares
Of argument, abandoned by what you meant.