Poems and Texts

“Post Prelude to Dream Machine” by Sade Murphy

Post Prelude to Dream Machine

The orgasm backfired muffled sobs on its crest. I dreamed of the nightmare man, flaying him into submission with a whip made of barbed wire hangers. The attacking hounds were dispatched to disintegrate while I remained poised as a bullet bounding off bark. I slapped my mother. I shook her. I shut her up. Disposed of her deluded dismemorial frame. The children! I was looséd mining for grief, blood pooling in my lap. The habit I wore was a knot of slipped salvation and pregnancy taunted me night upon night. I plant weddings. I married my bones, silver needles tore through my skin. Waiting for the bus in the rain, Him showed me three faces not two. I wanted to run until my arms got tired. A possum bit my outstretched hand. What is raw in my mind is the suffocating anxiety of waking startled and accompanied. The ghost of a dream expands, consumes more space than necessary. If I can sleep with enervity, prepare to wager all you crave. I cannot be beat.

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Sade Murphy

Sade Murphy was born and raised in Houston, TX. She doesn’t have an accent. She attended the University of Notre Dame and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Studio Art. Her studio practice is focused in book arts, printmaking, silk painting and installation art. In 2011 she received a fellowship from the Pavlis Foundation to complete a month long residency at the Vermont Studio Center. She has published one chapbook of poetry, Abandon Childhood, which most likely cannot be found anywhere. Her poetry has been published in Action Yes, joINT, Revolver, and LIT. She has recently completed her first full length manuscript of poetry, Dream Machine, and plans to apply to MFA programs this fall. She currently lives and works in South Bend, IN as an artist and serves as the Artist in Residence at Dismas House, a community focused on the re-entry of the formerly incarcerated.