Neon Dreams

Stippled glass refracts neon
green as a rock pool,

sculpting our fluid teen-
age bodies into punky shapes,

miming Poly Styrene and Siouxsie.

 “Just like dancing,” you say
behind your dark glasses.

“I know,” I say,
flashing with mine.

We lean
               against
                            the
                                  opaque bricks,

watching light play catch-me-if-you-can.

I dream we are neon mermaids,
still untouchable and young,

in our immersed dominion.

Kim M. Russell, 24^th April 2026

I can’t believe that we’ve already reached Day 24 of NaPoWriMo! Our optional prompt comes from ‘The Flying Nightdress’, a poem by Mandakranta Senin which she describes “something fantastical and strange that occurs while the rest of the world is asleep. The imagery of the poem is dreamlike, but the situation it describes is otherwise presented quite straightforwardly”.

Our challenge is to write poems that take place at night and describe something magical or strange that happens but that no one is awake (or around) to notice. I revived and reworked an old poem from June 2022.