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I slip through your fingers as sand in a sieve,
A brief moment, an eternity, is when I live.

Maybe I'll drown you, or give you flight,
Some say I fill you with both terror and delight,

Let us not forget, my most memorable feature,
Each time you see me, I become a preacher.

Even though it seems, I make the impossible happen,
Perhaps you should listen, instead of just napping.

Your true self I show, in a puzzle like this.

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    $\begingroup$ I've stolen your lines. Hope you don't mind! $\endgroup$ Jun 5, 2018 at 15:02
  • $\begingroup$ I'm flattered that you thought them good enough to be stolen :D $\endgroup$ Jun 5, 2018 at 15:03
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    $\begingroup$ They reminded me of Edgar Allan Poe. Now there's a compliment ;-) $\endgroup$ Jun 5, 2018 at 15:04

1 Answer 1

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You are:

dreams.

I slip through your fingers as sand in a sieve,
A brief moment, an eternity, is when I live.

When you wake up, it may feel like you just went to sleep moments earlier, even if it's been hours, or it may feel like you've been asleep for forty years.
Dreams may mess with one's perception of time; it's possible to have dreams that seem to take place over several days in a single night.

Maybe I'll drown you, or give you flight,
Some say I fill you with both terror and delight,

Drowning and flying are both common motifs in dreams. Dreams/nightmares may be fun or they may be scary.

Let us not forget, my most memorable feature,
Each time you see me, I become a preacher.

I'm less certain on this one. Some religions ascribe religious significance to dreams, hence preaching. Jungian psychology says that recurring dreams may have a purpose that the waking person must fulfill to stop them.

Even though it seems, I make the impossible happen,
Perhaps you should listen, instead of just napping.

In dreams, the rules of reality may no longer apply. Napping references to sleep and light dreaming directly. This is where the title applies: only in dreams can something impossible happen, like seeing pigs fly.

Your true self I show, in a puzzle like this.

Dreams may be said to show 'your true self' without conscious inhibitions. Also, note that the first letters of each line in order spell, "I AM SLEEPY"

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  • $\begingroup$ Excellent, you got every clue right, though maybe a bit more in depth than I had intended for the third stanza. I was just referring to Qernzf gryy lbh jung'f ba lbhe zvaq, urapr cernpuvat $\endgroup$ Jun 5, 2018 at 15:00
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    $\begingroup$ (@Joe-You-Know If you're going to ROT13 a comment, please indicate that ...) $\endgroup$
    – Rubio
    Jun 5, 2018 at 18:12
  • $\begingroup$ @Rubio out of curiosity, why? Everyone knows that it's ROT13 anyway, and even if they don't it's Puzzling, should be able to figure it out. Perhaps adding this to the site help section is appropriate? $\endgroup$ Jun 5, 2018 at 22:01
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    $\begingroup$ @AndrewSavinykh Because not everyone does know that it's ROT13, and seeing people talking in gibberish code can make a newcomer feel excluded because they can't "speak the language". (See also here for a quick take on it, or our Meta post which strongly recommends ROT13ed comments be called out as such.) $\endgroup$
    – Rubio
    Jun 5, 2018 at 23:27

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