a premature chill took the room,days ago dizzingly hot. dreamt of love in mid-night, love and allerton avenue. lying upon a newly hardened mattress, legs cold,arms folded, there was this girl. this curly black haired girl. she said she taught yiddish, she said she did not speak yiddish. i knew that talk of israel’s place in the middle east was not a subject likely to be discussed. there was her black african mother, the girl and her wonderful mother. i said i lived with my parents, knowing in the dream this was not true. we ate and laughed, leaned one against the other, climbed up and downstairs, waited for the bus.
what was allerton avenue doing in my dream? once home to grandparents and cousins, aberrant uncles and aunts, now it is a place only for making photographs. but there on allerton avenue, in some rust brown building with a courtyard and no elevator, there was sumptuousness,this dream of love (and allerton avenue).
