silence, and seeing swarms of little lights thru objects and rooms and walls of rooms.
None of the elements of this dream can be separated from any other part, it is all one pure suchness.
Would I were divinest punner and tell how the cold winds blow with one stroke of my quick head in this harsh unhospitable hospital called the earth, where âthou owest God a deathââTime for me to get on my own horseâ
The Kat is up on the sink actually fascinated by the drip drip of the faucet, there he is with his paws under him and his tail curling down and his ruminative quickglancing face bending and earpricking to the phenomena, as tho he was trying to figure out, or pass the time, or make fun of usâBut Mama has a headache, itâs a cold windy night in Old February and Pa is out late at work (playing poker backstage B.F.Keiths maybe with W.C.Fields for all I know with my drawn yawp masque)âThe winds belabor at the windows of the kitchen, Ma is on the couch on the newspapers where sheâs flopped in despair, itâs about 9:30, supper dishes have been put away (tenderly by her own hands) and now she lies there head back on a kewpie cushion with an ice pack on her headâThe woodstove roarsâGerard and I are at the stove rocker, warming our feet, Nin is at the table doing her â devoir â (homework)â
âMama youâre sick,â demurs Gerard with the gods, with his piteous voice, âwhat are we going to do.â
âAw itâll go away.â
He goes over and lays his head against hers and waits to hear her cureâ
âIf I had some aspirins.â
âIâll go get you someâat drugstore!â
âItâs too late.â
âItâs only 9:30âIâm not afraid.â
âPoor Lil Gerard itâs too cold tonight and itâs too late.â
âNo mama! Iâll dress up good! My hat my rubbers!â
âRun. Go to Old Man Bruneau, ask him for a bottle of aspirinâthe money is in my pocketbook.â
Together Gerard and I peer and probe into the mysterious pocketbook for the mysterious nickles and dimes that are always there intermingled with rosaries and gum and powder puffsâ
Little Gerard runs and puts his muffcap and draws it over his ears and draws on his rubbers with that tragic bent over motion no angels who never lived on earth could knowâA cold key in a tight lock, our situation, the skin so warm, thin, the night of Winter so broad and coolâSo Saskatchewanâd with advantageâ
âHurry up my golden, Mamaâll be afraidââ
âIâll go get your medicine and youâll be all right, just watch!
Gleefully he goes off, the door admits Spectre into the kitchen an instant and he slams itâI watch him tumble off.
Beaulieu Street going down towards West Sixth, 4 houses, to the Fire House, is swept by dustsâThe lamp on the corner only serves to accentuate by contrast the lightlessness in the general airâThe stars above are no help, they twinkle in a vain freezeâThe cold sweeps down Gerardâs neck, he tries to bundle inâHe hurries around the corner and down West Sixth, towards the lights of the big corner at Aiken and Lilley and West Sixth where bleak graypaint tenements stand with dull brown kitchen lights under the hard starsâNot a soul in sight, a few cruds of old snow stuck in the guttersâA fine world for icebergs and stonesâA world not made for menâA world, if made for anything, made for something dead to sympathyâSince sympathizing thereâll not be in it everâHe runs to warm upâ
Down at Aiken the wind from the river hits him full-blast with a roar, around the corner, bringing with it the odor of cold rocks in the riverâs ice, and the savor of rustâ
âGod doesnt look like he made the world for peopleâ he guesses all by himself as it occurs in his chilled bones the hopeless