dreaming of another place

Through the green
shades of a quiet
evening
the roving insects
of delight
scurried
over the decaying
body of an old
prisoner of mankind.
His eyes
turned into silver
mirrors of dismay
and his ears
deaf
to the cries
of the blue
baby’s dreaming.
And the shadows
of the oaks crawled
toward the edges
of his pink-skinned
fingers while the little children
played in the garden
next door
and their cries
were unheard
by the blue baby
as it dreamed
of tiny dancers
floating into familiar
places and dead singers
weeping for long-lost
diamond necklaces.
The professor watched
the children play
and scribbled
on his fading hope
while the blue baby dreamed
of another place.