as long as I'm dreaming

A hint of thunder approached within earshot, and along with black coffee, promised uninterrupted sleep. But gray clouds disintegrated and a full silver moon floated above the peaceful valley illuminating the blanketed night sky.
A train with a million graffiti-ed cars trudged along the gravel road crossing at nine miles an hour, and nodding off I dreamt abandoning my car, hopping the train like Kerouac in slow motion and watching time come to a stop.
There was a singular flag-marked grave at a cemetery along the way, a grass-less resting place of our small town's only eighteen-year old boy taken by a road side bomb from a country on the other side of the universe. He is next to his grandfather, also forever eighteen after perishing in the war to end all wars. It all reminded me in my doze that I needed to bulldoze all monuments dedicated to any war.
A dark stranger sporting a snake blocked the cemetery gate not allowing me to enter. I could not tell at first if the snake was smiling at me or just looking forward to the next meal. I guess it's all the same. In a snake's eye I'm guessing I looked like a juicy three swallow gazelle. I eliminated the middleman and blurted out to the fangy creature that I could converse with magpies. Boy, that changed the eight-footer's expression, like it just mistakenly got billed for filet mignon after only having toasted cheese and soup at a crowded lunch counter. So confused, it snapped off the silent stranger's neck. Luckily, chatty magpies are a snake's nemesis, and I didn't mind all the talk as we circled the courthouse square tower, the bell signalling that time started once again.

dream rendered by
The Snake Charmer
~Henri Rousseau 1907