Dream #1 Poem by Theresa Haffner

I dream that I meet my friend S____ S_____and Jonny the guitar player.

They both ask to buy product from me, so I say, 'Yes, I'll do it, but first I have to repunctuate (*) all the signs on Hollywood Boulevard.'

'I'd like to see that, ' says Jonny.

'I'd like to write it down, ' says S____S____.

We go to a screened in porch behind where Jonny is living.

They are both tired and lay down to sleep as I begin repunctuating.

The repunctuation was taking a little longer than expected. When they awake they both are impatient with me because I still haven't sold them anything.

I continue repunctuating. They get mad and both leave, swearing at me.

I am in a piano bar in a cocktail lounge that is located in the high school I used to attend in my home town.

It is only open sometimes. It is usually kept secret and only intended for the faculty and a few select students.

It is in a room that opens behind the school library.

They have Michelob and Lowenbrau on draft.

There is a small crowd of rowdy customers. They are all sitting around on those one piece wood and metal high school desks we used to use. Among them is the woman I went there with, who may or may not have been my love interest, and a tall 'Wavy Gravy' type hippie guy with long blonde hair, dressed in buckskins and knee high Indian mocassins.

Some of the customers are shooting pool.

I go into the adjoining room which is still a part of the school library. There are bookshelves with books on them.

I look through the books, then go back to the piano bar.

'There are lots of books in there, ' I told the bartender, 'but most of them need to be repunctuated. I've only repunctuated a few of them.'

The bartender looked at me blankly.

'I know a place that's got a piano bar for songwriters.' I told him.

He didn't say anything.

'Yeah, each one gets a desk with an FM radio, a cassette recorder, and a portable keyboard.'

Nobody was paying any attention.

'So you get your beer, you record a song off the radio and you figure out the music on your portable keyboard.'

'And that's your piano bar.'

Nobody thought it was very funny.

The woman I came with was angry with me. She was getting ready to leave.

When she left I got up and followed her out.

The hippie guy in buckskins got up also and followed out behind me.

The woman had already reached the pavement and was flagging down a car.

The hippie guy asked me, 'Are you two together? I mean are you__? ' He made a gesture with his fingers and whistled suggestively.

'I don't know, ' I said.

The car stopped and she got in. It was already speeding away.

The hippie guy and I began walking up the road together, not saying anything.

It was one of those winding mountain roads like Laurel Canyon Boulevard in the Hollywood Hills.

When we came to a narrow gravel driveway leading up a steep incline with woods on either side of it, the hippie turned and began walking up it.

'Oh, do you live up there? ' I asked.

'Yes, ' he said.

'Can I come and visit you sometime? ' I asked.

'No, ' he said.



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(*) Repunctuate: To rearrange the punctuation of an existing piece of literature so as to alter its meaning, often with humorous intent.