my dream dreams on in its dreamlogic         cows

are turning into people     cower     coward     people

long dead are young again in countries their hungry

eyes have never seen     no man (woman) is an island

an is-land     an eye-land     an I-land I wander

the landscape     there's some sadness     my old friend Ferdinand

ambles by smelling the flowers     a llama led by a brain-

damaged girl lopes by my house     I am reminded

of a Lama's practice of Tonglen     breathe in the pain

of the world     your pain is my pain     breathe out

compassion          for you     for me          for you

     for me

I hear you calling me     far away but clear          clear

zen gongs     the dingdong of your iv apparatus     my

name   marian, marian          in your sleep, in

my sleep.

Marian K. Shapiro (MA)  received her B.A. in English from Queens College and her Master's and Doctorate from Harvard. She is the author of Second Childhood (Norton, 1989).