A shallow lake, with many waterbirds, <br />especially egrets: I was showing Mother around, <br />An extraordinary vivid dream <br />of Betty & Douglass, and Don—his mother's estate <br />was on the grounds of a lunatic asylum. <br />He showed me around. <br /> <br />A policeman trundled a siren up the walk. <br />It was 6:05 p.m., Don was late home. <br />I askt if he ever saw <br />the inmates—'No, they never leave their cells.' <br />Betty was downstairs, Don called down 'A drink' <br />while showering. <br /> <br />I can't go into the meaning of the dream <br />except to say a sense of total Loss <br />afflicted me therof: <br />an absolute disappearance of continuity & love <br />and children away at school, the weight of the cross, <br />and everything is what it seems.<br /><br />John Berryman<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dream-song-101-a-shallow-lake-with-many-waterbir/
