Oneiricism

Frequently, while you’re reading,
Your dreaming mind continues
In the manner of the text

You’ve started dozing over,
So that, for a little while,
You are the author’s other

Self, transplanted to your skull.
If you’ve been reading fiction,
The characters keep talking.

If you’ve been reading science,
Thoughts keep hypothesizing—
No! Says a voice in the back,

Grad student in the shadows—
You keep experimenting!
Whatever. The text goes on

Until you’re fully awake
Or have run out of supplies
To go on in that genre.

For now, you’re still half-asleep.
An early original
Copy of the text folded

In your lap as your eyes drift
And you ask all the words left
To finish this mess at last.