Morning Words

When I don't have an alarm set for work, I always awaken in the morning out of a dream. The one I was having this morning involved pushing a car along a brutally rutted road in the dark. But that wasn't of much interest. Far more interesting to me is that, as I lay there for a moment, words suddenly appeared floating in the air right in front of my face. Closing my eyes allowed me to see them better, because, of course, they weren't really there.

Sometimes when I awaken I'm very briefly caught in what is called a hypnopompic state. From what I've read, the state is produced by being largely awake but with the brain activity in the frontal lobes still suppressed. Frontal lobe activity is key to what we call rational consciousness. Most people will occasionally experience such states, though most don't recognize them and just refer to them as dreaming.

Hypnopomic states are driven by emotion, and, in my case, probably because I'm such a huge reader as well as a writer, the imagery that appears in that state often consists of words floating in the air before my eyes. Most of the time I can read a few of the words but the meaning is usually jumbled. This morning, however, a whole phrase appeared to me. I've copied it below. Only the word indicated here as "throat" was smeared. I couldn't read what was actually there but "throat" seems like the most logical choice to my fully awakened frontal lobe. Perhaps you have a better word to replace it.

"There are those who smile and talk to your face with the tongues of angels, and all the while their black gaze is fixed on your throat, and their teeth click, click, click as they whisper evil behind your back."

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