I am asleep dreaming as I write this poem. I remember one
young woman, but cannot remember her name. She has a
group of her friends in her living room. It is a Christmas
party. She is serving Christmas cookies and tea. She re-
cently got divorced. It is a happy-sad time. I have other
dreams inside the one I am having. Other girls I dated ln
junior high and high school. Others in college. Others as
I grew older. Sleeping with some for a night, others with
whom I lived with for years. All of whom I loved for hours
or for many Christmases. I never married, but was married
to all of them. Memories of many, movies and popcorn,
dinners of salads and pizza, birthdays and prime rib, trips
to Paris and Moscow, picnics in the the Flint Hillls, more
Christmas cookies I took on Christmas Eve to souls sub-
sisting, sometimes for years, at the State Hospital. No one
got tears but the pillows.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS