The World Dream Bank: The Country of the Deaf

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The Country of the Deaf

Dreamed 1982/7/18 by Chris Wayan

"In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king"

I dream I have six senses. I must come out
To my mom. "Worse than gender queer--
worse than Wells's sightless valley where
vision's called madness. The Land of the Deaf

"is unrelenting agonizing racket. They're
guiltless screamers. Free to blare.
Jackhammers. Deaf-built cars backfire,
roar like a Hell's Angel hog-horde.

"Fitful sleep: not just the howls. Their light
relentless bright so they can see to sign."
Mom just muses "Social gaffes? You'd know
things others don't, I guess." Oh, true

enough--I'm scary not just odd: know too
many secrets I just can't. But not my main
point. Was I unclear? Again explain,
spell it out to Mom: "The Deaf cause PAIN."

She will not hear that. Selectively deaf!
Though I did Freudian-slip at first. Misled,
and had to correct my short-circuit head:
I called you all the Country of the Dead.

NOTES IN THE MORNING

Wells's valley: in "The Country of the Blind" H.G. Wells challenges the proverb that 'the one-eyed man is king'. A climber finds a sealed-off Andean valley where everyone's blind and vision long forgot. Smooth paths lead all over; no real need for eyes. They think him mad; those facial growths must irritate his brain. So the blind plan (with the best intentions) to gouge out his eyes.
ESP: literal. I've had a thousand psychic dreams, from subtle/symbolic/unclear to blatant/specific/useful. Telepathic, clairvoyant, and (scientifically the most troubling, but also the most profitable) predictive. It's genetic; all my close relatives get psychic flashes, though both my parents were devout skeptics so they just did their best to ignore them. I can't. Too damn loud.
Ah, I heard you, O Skeptic: "So why aren't you rich?" I am. Predictive dreams pay off. The Amazing Randi's million-dollar prize for proving ESP to his satisfaction never lured me--I already have my own.

The price? I'm mostly a recluse.
I can handle ones or twos--
not the human roar out there.
Naked minds are hard to bear.

LISTS AND LINKS: dream poems - disability - Marcy, my skeptical mom - examples of those psychic dreams - ESP in society - oops! - my worst boundary-violation from ESP: The Murders - another psychic deafened by the deaf: Mark Clifton - Freudian slips - the mother of all "slip" dreams: Little Bad Dream Charm

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