The Third Reich of Dreams

1
In place of street signs,
which had been abolished,
posters had been put up
on every corner, proclaiming
in white letters on a black
background the 20 words
people weren’t allowed
to say. The first was "Lord."

2
In the middle of the night the telephone rang.
A dull voice said, "This is the Monitoring Office."
I found myself begging and pleading that this one time
I be forgiven—please just don't report anything
this one time, don’t pass it on, please just forget it.
The voice remained absolutely silent and then hung up
without a word, leaving me in agonizing uncertainty.

3
"Public Interest Comes Before Self-Interest"
Banners with the slogan fluttered
in endless repetition along a street.

4
An old man was reading
in his apartment when,
quite suddenly, the walls
around him disappeared.
From the street outside,
a loudspeaker boomed,
"According to the decree
of the 17th of this month
on the Abolition of Walls..."

5
I dreamed that it was
forbidden to dream,
but I did anyway.

Source: https://neglectedbooks.com/?p=4797;https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/how-dreams-change-under-authoritarianism

back to issue

Howie Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, is the author of The Loser's Guide to Street Fighting, winner of the 2017 Lorien Prize from Thoughtcrime Press, and Dangerous Acts Starring Unstable Elements, winner of the 2015 Press Americana Prize for Poetry.