2 Dreams


I punch Leigh in side of face.
He is stunned. I let it sink in.
Then resume the game.

The ball is thrown towards me from behind.
I cower on the floor.
I say thanks to Dave Ramsey (?)
after it thuds into the earth
by my head.

'I hate Leigh,' he says.
'He drives me mad.
He's battling depression.'

Later I am in the corner of a room.
I thank Leigh for taking it so well.
He lays a punch on the side of my face.

I get off the bus early
and am led to a restaurant.
Durga is eating alone at the corner of a table.
My father and I have already perused the menu.
I cannot find my speciality.
Dough balls with different ingredients
are in a basket at the entrance.
We sit in a corner, later, with Durga and laugh.

I am in a village.
The streets muddy.
As I walk home, passing a car,
the streets become unnavigable,
all mud, undifferentiated
from the sewage works to the left,
which bubbles as if with a flush
from time to time.
I follow the crisscross
of pavement and road, delineated
by lines like bicycle tracks in the mud.

* * *

I put down my water-bottle-like ball
run to the circle,
and kick a tennis ball out of touch.
'Well done,' they tell me.
I struggle to follow and they tot up
their points -marked in small red and black
balls in lines at their feet.

I wake up and resolve things with A.