Elizabeth Majerus
Edicts from the Council of Rest
No somna may bring a timepiece into the fields of rest. Timepieces with moving works may be left at the border station. Digital time tellers will be confiscated and dissolved.
Somnae may sing, speak, or laugh only during the transition to complete rest or, once transitioned, during every third dreamcycle. Speech must fall within the audibility and lucidity limits established by the council.
Food and beverage from the waking world are prohibited beyond the entry gate to the border station.
With the exception of cats, lemurs, and owl monkeys, animals from the waking world are expressly barred from the realm of rest.
Somnae making troubled transitions from wakefulness to complete rest must maintain a distance of three feet from any resting plot currently in use.
No adult somna is permitted to remain in a state of complete rest in any one resting plot beyond the duration of thirty consecutive dreamcycles without a permit from the sanitorium.
Somnae are advised to refrain from direct intercourse with electric light prior to entering the realm of rest. Somnae who exhibit signs of light stupor will be escorted to the border station for detoxification.
Rules and standards of decorum from the waking world do not apply to somnae engaged in dream states.
Devices and locations of harm (e.g., fire, nooses, blades, open water, endless freefall) are permitted only in their phantasmagoric state.
Projections of both rapture and existential darkness are permitted within the same dreamcycle, but somnae are advised to practice caution when mixing the two.
Shoes are without exception forbidden.
Appendix One to the Edicts from the Council of Rest: Disparities
A. The realization of a dozen or more consecutive dreamcycles of complete rest is sometimes referred to as “a beautiful sleep.”
B. The turmoil engendered by one somna’s recurrent inability to conquer the resting plot of their choice was without hyperbole named “the harrowing.”
C. Dreamers pricked by the injustices of the waking world seek equity in the realm of rest only at their peril.
Appendix Three to the Edicts from the Council of Rest: Exceptions
A. In general, somnae are advised to be aware that any and all of the Edicts may without censure be flouted, set aflame with phantasmagoric fire, torn asunder in the witness of dreaming herds of ungulates, or otherwise disregarded.
B. Due to the weight and value of certain of the edicts, the phrase “without censure” in Appendix Three, Section A may nor may not deflect each and every censure outlined in the Edicts proper, and/or any of their appendices.
C. The council is not responsible for any perplexity, consternation, or moral anguish engendered by the above-outlined confusions.
*Poet’s note: These edicts and appendices owe a debt of inspiration to the poet Jonathan Weinert
Elizabeth Majerus is a teacher, musician, and poet living in Urbana, Illinois with her family. Her poems have been published most recently in Another Chicago Magazine, The Madison Review, and Rhino Poetry. Her chapbook, Songs Are Like Tattoos, was recently published by Finishing Line Press. She is a member of the Glass Room Poets and one-third of the band Motes.
