JEAN VALENTINE

If a Person Visits Someone in a Dream,
in Some Cultures the Dreamer Thanks Them
     —for Reginald Shepherd

Dear Reginald,
It is morning.
I sit at a table
writing a letter
with a needle and thread.

                ~

I pricked my finger        A pelican
out of her migratory path,
even her language family—
whose child is gone
yet she absently pecks at her breast.

                ~

I write on the bedspread
I am making for you there
May you breathe deeply and easily.
If a person visits someone in a dream,
in some cultures the dreamer thanks them in the morning
for visiting their dream.

                ~

I call it dream
not that I am drawn to that which withdraws
but to him pearled, asleep, who never withdraws.

                ~

At a hotel in another star. The rooms were cold and damp, we were both at the desk at midnight asking if they had any heaters. They had one heater. You are ill. Please take it. Thank you for visiting my dream.

                ~

Can you breathe all right?
Break the glass        shout
and break the glass       force the room
break the thread       Open
the music behind the glass.