Dreamscapes with Elvis

by Réka Nyitrai

Last night Elvis
was again in my mother's dream.
He was playing his guitar
whilst all the housewives from the neighborhood
were gathered in our kitchen.

Mother says
that a few centuries ago
she and Elvis were birds.
Now, Elvis is a security agent at a busy airport.
Whenever he has off days, he visits my mother in her dreams.
He plays his guitar while she cooks him pork chops.

Sometimes, when I can't sleep,
I hear them chit-chat about old times,
when both of them were non-humans
and knew nothing
about the taste of tears
and the flow of time.

Réka Nyitrai is a spell, a sparrow, a lioness's tongue — a bird nest in a pool of dusk. She is the recipient of a Touchstone Distinguished Books Award for 2020 for her debut haiku volume While Dreaming Your Dreams (Valencia Spain: Mono Ya Mono Books, 2020).