The Barking Dog of Karma

O how one can suffer that fine line
Between dream and nightmare!

Some dream ghosts whisk by nearly unremarkable:
No broken hearts, no public nudity, no murderers
Closing in on your heels, just puppies and ice cream,

While others baffle and throw you off kilter.
They invade, painting you in a scene
You would never have willingly entered.

Why should you couple with this one
For whom you have no attraction in the light of day?
Who seems to walk out of some distant past

Entering the space occupied by another—
Recognized, yet unrecognized, in this dream-mare?
Karma is sometimes a dog that barks at you

And other times growls, trying to get your attention
You suppose, but for what purpose?
You know you have seeds to burn. You know you could

Have been coupled in a past life. But why
Are you forced to revisit it now against your will?
O, you do know dreams come to you against your will.

You may enjoy some, scorn others; still, they come
Spewing forth from the old memory hole.
Life is a series of lessons; you have learned that much

From experience and God. You can control
What you do with your eyes open, but when you close them
And try to rest that brain and its soldiers, you would

Have your rest be peaceful and unfettered by past
Emotional, and possibly physical ties that time
And death and life again have broken—

Only God knows
How many times.

https://letterpile.com/poetry/The-Barking-Dog-of-Karma-with-Commentary