Japanese House
for A. and V.

I.

I dreamed I lived in a Japanese house,
For a time of my life with a Chinese wife.
There were sliding doors of Fuji forest pine.
We would drink our tea as the crickets chimed.

I dreamed I sat in an old cane chair;
The morning sunlight seeping through slatted filigree.
It would wash over my feet warm summer rain,
And pool blue cloth covered rattan table.

At night, in my dream, I could hear the wind in the eaves
And the mountain breeze whisper under the floor,
Lightly, lightly coming up through the boards:
Scent of jasmine from the garden.

I cut a pipe from hardened bamboo joint.
Later,
watched smoke curl up to royal blue ceiling.


II.

I dreamed I carried rugs from Pakistan
And laid them in my Japanese house.
My wife would walk barefoot without a sound
To the tokonoma and read without blinking.

I dreamed I hung white linen on the walls;
It would ripple and wave in the breeze
Like the clean sheets on the line hung in the sun-filled yard.
And I would awaken to the sound of my wife whispering.

I stood naked in the middle of that house in my dream,
Arms outstretched and head laid back,
As the summer rain began to fall earth green and dank.
My wife wrapped herself around me from behind.

Her hands were warm and when I looked:
In her eyes,
I saw my son.

III.

I dreamed that rattan table laden with food,
And bottles of wine ruby red and purple glow.
An open wooden gate, dogs scramble to bark;
Sounds of motorcycles coming up the dark street.

I dreamed I saw my friends dance in my Japanese house,
Snap thier fingers and shake their hair and beards.
The whole house trampoline bounce
Shimmy about like to take off.

And when guitar played in my dream,
I would bang on the percussion pots,
The eaves hum pulse beat.
Reverb like a tuning fork in each plank of pine.

We would stand under the street lamp.
Oh,
we would laugh and dream.


STREETLAMPS

We would stand under the streetlamps,
And we would laugh and dream.