Dreamscapes

I was getting ready to go out
When I remembered the night before
That I looked out the open window
And a girl and a child were asleep on a chair
The child woke and was crying
For the weather had grown cold
And there would be no more swimming this year

Morning came quickly

And I was getting ready
When a group of people invaded my pool
They'd taken the low brown sludge
And they'd filled it to the top with blue
And they were sitting in it and on the edge
A large tan woman was perched
Precariously it swayed under her big weight
The sun reflecting on her fat brown skin
She laughed with her head back in a fit
Of convulsive glee
Large white teeth gleaming
And her sunglasses on her nose
She looked over them at me
Mocking

I warned her if she wasn't careful
She would topple the whole thing
And land in a puddle of slippery blue liner
And now cold and wet, warm dry leaves and sand
She ignored me

Then a crash
 
But she continued to laugh, unthreatened
And a pretty young thing
With thick eyebrows
Turned to tell me to go away
I was spoiling their fun
I was hoarse from yelling
And I decided to beat them
Which I did with a paddle
Until they fled
Or else I wanted to

And then I thought of Pagu-Lina
My girlfriend
And angel face
But she was not there

When I got back to the house
I could not dial correctly
To tell work I'd be late
I screamed some more
Til I fell asleep

Underwater
I could see
A warm fish
With a cat's eyes.
And as it swam
I felt it's whiskers
Brush me.
It told me to
Beware
For a Mongrel Man
Had escaped
And wanted to rape me
He was slick
But he couldn't go
Underwater.
So I could hide there.
I had no trouble breathing
So I decided
It would be okay.
And I dove
For an adventure.
I went through
The swinging doors
And opened a latch
The caves under there
Went everywhere
So I couldn't get lost.
Once I came
To a balcony.
It was raining out
So I dove back
Underwater.
 
When I surfaced again
It was night
And all around me was
Underwater
But for a black rock.
So I crawled onto it
To rest and saw
that the water was
Black, too.
I was lost.
A dolphin came up
Nearby and I saw
It was swimming 
On it's side
It could not swim upright.
It was injured.
So I cried.
Through my tears
I meant to heal it.
And it worked.
The dolphin was grateful
It gave me a lift home.
On the way
As we stopped to pay a toll
I saw my friend again
With the cat's eyes.
And he told me
To beware
For the Mongrel Man
Had learned to swim.

A ragged man
In the shadows
Came out while I
was passing by
And he gave me a little book
He said here use this
To collect those there
And on the ground
I saw what he meant
A hundred or so
Little soft eggs lay
All about and
in them through
soft shells I could see
Tiny animals amid
Veins and capillaries
They struggled and cried
For many would perish
As animals nearby
Fought one another
To eat them
I opened the book
And saw that inside
Was hallow and I
Began to collect them
Then I saw
The adults were dying, too
I could not save them
Nor the eggs they fought
To eat
I turned to ask the ragged man
But he had disappeared
And with him a dog
That died in childbirth
I stood for a while in awe
Of the wasteland
Of twitching bodies in
Pain or dead
Then I found a rest room
And washed my hands with the
Brown soap

I went to return some china
And the man there and his wife
Had two baby alligators
(Slipping through my fingers
Riding my palms
Tangling themselves in the cat
Little nubs of green skin and
Dinosaur teeth)
I stand on line with my
Receipt in triplicate and my china
In the store where broken toys
And spoiled food are undiscarded
Lest they not feel loved
(A drippy ice cream swirl in a vat
And a cracked hobo with a smile
Say "Buy Me" at the door)
I know I must return the china 
And I swear I won't stray
But now I'm met with disapproving faces
And I want to hold an alligator
The wily slippery things
I chase them but they wind up
Getting tangled in the cat
I'm addicted I simply must hold
A baby alligator so
I left the china at the counter
With my receipt in triplicate
And now I chase them

On the slopes of a small fishing town
We ride in on a wave for an adventure
We sailed there where grandma told us to go
Just before she died
We sailed up steep hills in the heights
And through waters to a place where children play
Behind an ocean wall
They bob in the green chop
In their bright colored goggles
The world is green and beautiful
The air the quality of a storm
We dock and head in to town
We're invited in for pasta
At a black tie inn
We rate the maids in their french uniforms
And drink tinny water from clear glass
The rain comes while we watch
And spits shots past the ocean wall
The children still swim indifferent
Bolts of lightening never hit them
We sit back with our drinks
And toast the new town
We know grandma would have been proud
Our pasta primavera is delivered
Then chicken Parmesan with a spurt of parsley
Some breadsticks and a bit of basil
You bite into a sweet onion
I can taste it on your breath
When the rain stops we wander along
On the humid 'crete by the ocean wall
The surface is hot to my bare feet
The water an even ninety eight

I have a roll of movie film
To thread the camera
But I see it is already
Exposed and on it there are
Pictures of Martha and you
And one of me
Looking very pretty
In my bathing suit
I want to keep it
But I'm afraid
If I don't fix it
It will fade away
So with one end
On oily paper
I transfer it all
There I am half of me
Rubbing off on the paper
In my bathing suit
You and Martha I would let fade
But I thought better of
The side with you
Smiling on it so nicely
So I transfer them, too
I can let nothing get away
I have never let
A sleeping dog lie
 

There are two children on my doorstep
Dressed as cookies
I don't think it's such a good idea, that
I think someone will want to eat them
And then what? The idea occurs to me
Devour them to put the child back in
Put the child back in me
Give them candy, make them go away
I'm no mother, me