Shane McCrae

IN A SHARED DREAM WHO ACTS

America I woke     to you at the moment

You fell asleep I write to you from the dream

I dream now even as I work and do

Not work     and eat and do not eat     and am

Alone and not alone     even in dreaming

The dream     America America

Is dreaming you     I write to you from the dream

I woke to you     and rolled     from the bed and left

The room and closed the door and went downstairs

And even though the door     was closed Amer-

ica I made my breakfast quietly

And winced each time the spoon     sounded against

The bowl     it sounded like     a bell stopped short

It sounded like whose hand was pressed against it

Shane McCrae's "In a Shared Dream Who Acts" can be read in the print edition of The Arkansas International 3.

Shane McCrae’s most recent books are In the Language of My Captor (Wesleyan University Press, 2017) and The Animal Too Big to Kill (Persea Books, 2015). He has received a Whiting Writer’s Award, a fellowship from the NEA, and a Pushcart Prize. He teaches at Columbia University.