I entered the forest at midnight after winding my hallway clock so it wouldn't run down in my absence like a slave worked too hard while I went to investigate the scream I had heard from my open window as my wife waited patiently for me in the alcove in the hallway feeling braver than usual when the moon had just risen I tied up the untamed dragon with a frayed rope and vital help of a rampant genie the sound of a distant golden lute offering liquid beauty to an old woman drinking with a spring in my step I decided to practice jumping over the hill behind my house I dropped into a marsh on top of the will o' the wisp and it filled me with a desire to take it home and keep it in a bottle full of brandy as tightly coiled as my pocket galaxy I ran for joy in the style of a child but hung it from a hook shaped cloud but I couldn't see where I walked I had only pure sound to help me learn the identity of the player the drum that troubled the night as the galaxy cooled in the sky feeling youthful as I dodged the tree trunks I forgot I am too old now and like the pendulum of a gigantic clock a large branch swung itself at my head and i groped my way like a blind man so I strained my eyes as hard as I could while the stars whirled around my eyes and the planets danced their ellipses dressed in the wrong clothes twisting my angles and bruising my knees when there was no time left to tell and i wandered off the path through mud as thick as treacle until the dull glow appeared ahead as cool as two glow-worms like lovers who are also spies with boots that were too tight I had to hobble instead of walk and the world seemed a safer place because I could not hurry into danger but I was chasing an enigma of sighs and I saw the musical vibration the flame I was seeking around the sentimental object that was the sun but happier than I had been for ages for the remainder of the long hours now the scaly monster was no longer free I ceded to forget my duties and chores and hoping to catch the dream in fact a sunbeam caught in a spider web I cupped instead in my eager fingers the burning heart of the woman I loved