27 January 2020

[elflocks]

I had a dream of hunger, and a dream of a river losing its water, exposing its silt, but that's all I remember of those dreams. I dreamt I was in California, night, in the decade before I was born, accompanied, we were outside a thick tangle of dwellings in a city, and I saw a tiger, I was startled, afraid it would eat me, it approached, sauntered past without acknowledgement, I found a head of Caesar and knew it had a specific name, Caesar erected in Persia where he reigned, his face was carved with finer features, a finer curl to his hair, something catlike in the eyes. Another dream, all I remember is a moment, a man who had been whipped across his back, naked to the waist, covered in blood, he was standing looking down at me where I sat, looking hard at me without breaking his gaze, oppressive, I felt bad, ashamed in some way, he looked at me as he began to dress himself in a white silk shirt of another era, and I could not bear to watch, the staining of the silk with blood, I looked away from his eyes.