[the Writing of Kuypers]    [JanetKuypers.com]    [Bio]    [Poems]    [Prose]




Watch this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her prose “A Dream About Murder” (2:33) from the 2/3/04 “Dreams” show in Chicago (this video was posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetryshow
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Watch the YouTube video
of this prose 08/28/11, first in in her book Contents Under Pressure, read on WZRD radio, from the Canon camera
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Watch the YouTube video
of this prose 08/28/11, first in in her book Contents Under Pressure, read on WZRD radio, from the Sony camera
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Watch the YouTube video
of this prose 08/28/11, first in in her book Contents Under Pressure, read on WZRD radio, from the Mini camera
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See feature-length YouTube
video 08/26/11 of the majority of the WZRD radio show with her reading poetry (incliding this writing) from the Canon camera
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See feature-length YouTube
video 08/26/11 of the majority of the WZRD radio show with her reading poetry (including this writing) from the Sony camera
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See feature-length YouTube
video 08/26/11 of her prose (and this writing) read at the WZRD radio show from the mini cam
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See YouTube video 6/24/16 of Janet Kuypers’ 2 poems The One At Mardi Gras & kids wielding freedom and sin; then her flash fiction A Dream About Murder at Georgetown’s Poetry Plus open mic at Cianfrani’s (Canon P.S.).
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See YouTube video 6/24/16 of Janet Kuypers’ 2 poems The One At Mardi Gras & kids wielding freedom and sin; then her flash fiction A Dream About Murder at Georgetown’s Poetry Plus open mic at Cianfrani’s (Sony).
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers 1/7/18 in Austin reading her prose “A Dream About Murder” from her book “When you Dream Tonight” at the “Recycled Reads” book reading (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).
video videonot yet rated

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers 1/7/18 in Austin reading her prose A Dream About Murder from her book “When you Dream Tonight” at the “Recycled Reads” book reading (Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; Threshold).
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See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers 1/7/18 reading her poems “He Told Me His Dreams 4” & “The Dream” & her prose “A Dream About Murder” from her book “When you Dream Tonight” live at “Recycled Reads(this video filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera).
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See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers 1/7/18 reading her poems “He Told Me His Dreams 4” & “The Dream” & her prose “A Dream About Murder” from her book “When you Dream Tonight” live at “Recycled Reads(Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; Edge Detection).

A dream about murder.

I had a dream last night, it was different from my usual dreams, usually I dream about stuff that seems pretty real, somewhat mundane and at most usually frustrating. But I don’t know if it was the wine I had at the Thanksgiving feast at Rachel’s down the block, or if I heard some strange story on television earlier, but I dreamt about murder.

Dave and I were staying at a hotel, I don’t know where the hotel was, but it was on a body of water, I think it was a lake, not an ocean or anything. And I remember at some point, it was dawn in the dream, I went for a jog, I noticed two good-looking men outside while I was on my jog, and then I went down the hill to the water. I wanted to jog along the water. But they had it roped off - I don’t even know who "they" would be, but the area along the water was roped off, maybe until full daylight, maybe then lifeguards would be there to protect the people. But the point is, I couldn’t jog along the water, so I sat down at the bottom of the stairs by the water’s edge, right in front of the ropes, and watched the water. And a woman came along down the stairs, and sat down next to me to watch the water, too. I remember thinking that I didn’t like her being so close, I like to keep a sense of personal space, but then it occurred to me that there wasn’t much space for her to go since the whole area was roped off. And the thing is, I don’t even like to jog.

Oh, so anyway, I don’t even know why I went for a jog or at what point in time in my dream this jog occurred. But I know that in the dream I killed someone. It occurred before my dream technically started; I don’t remember anything about the murder, I don’t know if it was me alone that did the killing or if Dave was there with me, all I know is that I killed a guy, I don’t know why I killed him, but I killed someone in another room in the same hotel, someone who I didn’t even really know. And the thing is, I was wearing fake nails during the murder, or at least that’s what I inferred in the dream, because I thought I lost one of them at the scene of the crime and the main part of the dream was me in the bathroom removing all of my fake nails because they might implicate me in the murder.

So I was removing my nails, they were plastic nails glued on to my real nails, and they weren’t even painted, they were still just white plastic. And as I was removing these fake nails I was dropping them on the floor because I was ripping them off so frantically, I didn’t want anyone to be able to link me to this murder. So when I got them all off, I was still worried that I had a little glue left on my real finger nails, so I was trying to scrape that off, and then I was trying to pick up all the fake nails off the bathroom floor. They all fell just to the right of the toilet, and were on the tile floor, and I remember as I was picking them up I also picked up a dust ball and a used piece of clear tape. I remember thinking that was odd, because usually hotel bathroom floors are clean, they’re cleaned every day. So anyway, I kept picking up the nails, trying to make sure I got them all, occasionally dropping one of them back on the floor because I was so hectic and so nervous. This made the whole procedure take up most of my dream.

Once I had all of the nails, the only thing I could think about was how to dispose of the nails, and the rest of the dream became a frantic effort to figure out how I could get rid of them so that they could not be traced back to me. I thought that I could just flush them all down the toilet, but then I thought that there might be a chance that one of the nails wouldn’t go down and would just stay at the bottom of the toilet and I wouldn’t notice it and think I was home free but in actuality I’d be leaving a huge piece of evidence in my own hotel room linking me to the murder. Then I wondered if they’d have a way to sift through the sewer water from the hotel, so then I thought that I shouldn’t flush any of them down the toilet, but go to various public rest room around town and flush a few at a time.

Then I started to worry that if the nail I left at the scene of the crime took more than just the glue with it, that it actually took some of my nail with it, then I would have left DNA evidence at the scene of the crime and there would be nothing I could do.

And then I started to wonder if I actually lost a nail at the scene of the murder, or if I was just overreacting.

And then I wondered if anyone had even found the dead body yet, all this time laying there on the floor of their hotel room. And then the phone rang and I woke up.


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Blister and Burn, Janet Kuypers 2007 book the book Distinguished Writings the cc&d v170.5 issue release of Kuypers' writings in the 2006 book  Distinguished Writings the book Dreams Chaotic Radio Week #03






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