Sleeping in a Freshly Painted Room

for Mildred Gaston

within the valley
of your sleep

you visit a grey wooden house
that never changes

behind a black iron fence
on a pasture's slope
little else is nearby
though there must be

a neighbor
up the hill

since there's always
music

no matter how many
times
dreams bring you
there's always music

some distant
scratchy recording

maybe a 78

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Mike James is the associate editor of The Kentucky Review. He has had recent poems published in 5 AM, Old Red Kimono, and Town Center Poetry. New work is forthcoming in Comstock Review, Iodine, and Philadelphia Poets. His most recent book, Past Due Notices: Poems 1991-2011, was published last year by Main Street Rag. His latest book, Elegy in Reverse, was published earlier this year by Aldrich Press.