From Hot Blood

    An unkindness of ravens surrounded me as I left the gate. I reached into my pocket and tossed them some crumbs leftover from breakfast. Like the ravens we wore black cassocks. They were associated with Saint Benedict and the place. Usually they scattered and cawed thankful for the treats, but they hovered above me, their beady eyes on me. “What’s the matter?” I continued on the path alongside the grove in spite of their admonishment. 

  I didn’t know where I was going. The abbot didn’t ask much of me, so I wanted to find Brother Norton for him. If I was him, where would I go? I heard a strange sound coming from the trees and stopped. What was that? A flute? It sounded weird and unfamiliar. I found a deer path and took it into the woods. 

  It was darker, cooler here. The May breeze didn’t stir. It smelled like moss, and the earth was moist beneath my feet. I could still hear the flute, lilting, but it was faint. My heart beat into my ears like a Druidic drum. 

  A young girl, perhaps thirteen, stepped out from the brambles and startled me. She was very pale and thin, wearing nothing but a filthy shift. Her feet were bare, and her arms were scratched. Her matted and tangled hair kept tiny blossoms and blooms as if they had grown there. She was eating something, looked like a ripe sort of fruit that I had never seen around here. It was too early for fruit. She wiped her mouth with her dirty hand and smiled. She offered me the half eaten thing that she held out to me. 

  I shook my head. “No thank you. Have you seen my brother? He’s dressed like me.” I plucked at the skirt of my cassock. 

  She tossed the fruit into a thicket, waking little buntings who rose up like spirits and vanished into the morning shadows. She walked towards me. I noticed her left eye was a bit lazy. As she approached the hair rose up on the back of my neck, and I shivered. Then she laughed and ran off like a doe. “Hey!” She was gone as was the eerie flute. I rubbed my head. What was that? Birds? Insects? I don’t remember hearing it before. Then something stirred in the leaves to my left. I looked back. It was Brother Norton. Thank God. 

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Dreams 8/2

 The dreaming began with a cloth bound book missing its dust jacket. It was purple and had an old woman in an apron embossed in sparkling turquoise. She might've been a witch. She seemed to be dancing, her apron was caught up in the breeze. Beneath her two children crouched by a washtub. They looked Dutch by their wooden clogs. The girl had long braided pigtails. It might've been a book of fairy tales. 

  In the following dream I was in a cafeteria eating lunch with my friend, Rick. There was a dance coming up, and Rick seemed too thick to realize I wanted him to take me. Later, after the dance, we were leaving, and my grade school friend, Karen, was at the door. She wanted to talk to Rick who was disinterested. 

  The third dream began with me packing for a hiking trip. My backpack was very heavy, and I moved like a turtle due to the two hardback books, one my gigantic college Shakespeare book. I was wearing Mummy's thick brown parka. I'd gotten to an Asian woman's apartment where I opted to leave the Shakespeare and switch to her much lighter leather vest that was loaded with little zippered pockets up the sides. I slipped some pot into the bottom pocket on the left. She didn't seem very happy about the lending. I think her husband was going on the field trip with us. He looked very much like that count in France who murdered his entire family and skipped the country. He wore rose or amber colored sunglases, not sure which, they seemed to change. When I got on the bus it was already very crowded, the black pleather seats were mostly taken. My Aunt Judy was there, a woman in a tan jacket sat beside her. The spot next to my highschool English teacher, Chris, was free, but she had a little black satchel there. She smiled uncomfortably. I sat down adjacent to Aunt Judy and was chatting with her when I woke. 

The Oak

Darling little acorn, perfect and true,

how I adore you. 

I'll put you in a pot in the sun, 

loving you is fun. 

A green sprout, you've started. 

Now, I'll plant you beneath my window, 

we shall never be parted. 

I will climb and hang from your strong branches. 

You will watch while I take my chances. 

Together we will grow. 

Always, I'll love you so. 

I know, I'm just a girl, 

you are so much wiser than me. 

You will house birds and bugs, 

I will give you hugs. 

Even if I move away, 

my love for you will never sway. 

You and I are one forever like the winds. 

Around you I dance, my true love, widdershins. 

My, Oak, if you were only a man and not a tree

oh, how perfect it might be. 

 

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Dreams 5/11

 I dreamed I was standing on a balcony with my two ex-sister-in-laws looking down on a cobblestone courtyard. My ex was at a door with a woman with dirty blonde hair, she wore a tea length dress with a pink feather boa. He was kissing her, and my ex-sister-in-law yelled, "Ew!" There was another woman down there, to the right, seated at a cast iron garden table. She looked up and said. "That's why I never went out with him. I knew that would happen."