By Chad Lutz

I’m not falling asleep.

I’m waking into memories;

of my childhood, my teenage

years, my twenties; in a dream

that lasts forever.

I’m kissing girls on the lips,

hugging turns, trading smiles,

lying still on sandy beaches to

listen for the sounds of my heartbeat.

And after the school dances are over,

the rich meals are through;

the fleeting images caught

in the miraculous patchwork

webbing of my mind

illuminated like reels of sacred film,

that’s when I’ll fall asleep.

I’ll be thirty and write content,

avoid caffeine, floss, flush and wash,

hope no one approaches me at the gym,

and always take my medicine.

I’ll fall asleep into life

because the present moment

is never quite the same as what I

intentionally remember

in my dreams.

Chad Lutz was born in Akron, Ohio, in 1986 and raised in the neighboring suburb of Stow. A 2008 graduate of Kent State University’s English program, his writing has been featured in Diverse Voices Quarterly, Kind of a Hurricane Press, Haunted Waters Press, and Sheepshead Review. Chad still balls hard in his hometown of Stow and currently works in North Canton writing content for an online job resource site. He also manages an online magazine called AltOhio.com. Chad runs competitively and won the Lake Wobegon Marathon in May 2015, setting the course record by nearly three minutes in a time of 2:33:59. He aspires to qualify for the Olympic Trials.