Dream

“And as he fell asleep, he who had been a man comprised of head and fingers, penis, capillaries and lungs, thoughts and excitement, dwindled and became only ear. Bit by bit until he was only one enormous ear.” And the woman curled up beside him told him stories, whispered in his ear. She told him stories of her dreams until the stories became his dreams. “Once upon a time there was a tree, a green green tree on a hill blowing in the wind. But the leaves were stylized like painted floating dots and they scattered from the tree in the wind. The tree was painted on a blue, blue background and the trunk of the tree was thick and brown and gnarled.” (The painting was hung on the wall in the basement bathroom above the water heater on the farm).“And in the next panel there was a painting of the branches of a Japanese tree in Autumn. These leaves were stylized too and were orange with white splotches. There was a large goldfish that swam between the branches of the tree. If you looked very closely you could see the faint outline of a goldfish bowl around the fish as he swam through the air.” And then they were no longer voice and ear or sleeping lovers, but only dreams.