A shallow lake, with many waterbirds,

especially egrets: I was showing Mother around,

An extraordinary vivid dream

of Betty & Douglass, and Don—his mother’s estate

was on the grounds of a lunatic asylum.

He showed me around.

A policeman trundled a siren up the walk.

It was 6:05 p.m., Don was late home.

I askt if he ever saw

the inmates—‘No, they never leave their cells.’

Betty was downstairs, Don called down ‘A drink’

while showering.

I can’t go into the meaning of the dream

except to say a sense of total Loss

afflicted me therof:

an absolute disappearance of continuity & love

and children away at school, the weight of the cross,

and everything is what it seems.