[The dream says it’s more stripper] by Zoë Ryder White

"You bring the tea cake, the sweet demeanor."

[The dream says it’s more stripper]

by Zoë Ryder White

The dream says it’s more stripper 
than costume. More black light 
than bandage. You’re up to 
ironweed and the dream 
has stepped out of its shorts.  
Jewelweed jack in the pulpit 
jacaranda. Knapweed. 
The dream begins 
to hiss disconcertingly. 
It shakes its paper bag of seeds.  
See what I mean? 
Throws its shirt on the floor.  
Love in a mist. Lupine. 
See how it compensates? 
It gets sloppy. It spills 
down its bra. It’s sticky. It howls. 
Milkweed. Remember? 
You’ll be enmeshed soon. 
You bring the tea cake, 
the sweet demeanor.
The dream accepts devours 
offers up your favorite failing. 
It won’t leave you alone. 
Be comforted. 

---

Read our interview with Poet of the Week, Zoë Ryder White, in which she discusses giving the dream a voice. About this, she says:

“The dream started talking back/becoming an active participant in conversation in September 2025, when I was in the midst of some health issues. I was living in my body in a different way than I am used to. I wonder if the dream got louder/more vocal because the body was temporarily less mobile; not itself.”