Third Layer

Kenneth, who had the sort of looseness that let hims say "basil"

As if he were squeezing the "l" by straining it through the not-z "s" and

Encompassing it all with an "i" pronounced "e,"

is taller than life, and lanky, and says

that he would have me be as honest as he can

within the confines of this,

Asks me why I dream the way I do

And wake up not knowing who I am and knowing I am alone,

And I wonder what he's doing in the dream with the girl who grabs my ass

And kisses me hard upon the lips and shifts so that her face is never quite real

and barely though decisively in color,

and they are though the same person

hidden in the same sentence.

And at least one of them loves you in the most difficult way

and that is why you were the dream.