I've Kept Myself Warm with a Dream

It's been two days since I had a silly dream that someone loved me, and it still keeps me achingly warm. In my dream I was taking a bus to St. Louis. I must have been younger than I am now, because the bus (train?) conductor asked me what I would do when I got to St. Louis. He was concerned that I had no plans, no money, and no friends; he warned me that the city would be rough where the bus was getting off.

I was frightened, and when the bus stopped for a rest, I asked my partner what we would do. He had spent some time in St. Louis and I hoped he knew a friend we could stay with until we figured out how to leave the rough part of the city. He shook his head and reached for my hand: "I don't know anyone in St. Louis who can help us. But honey, if you have to sleep on a blanket on the sidewalk, I'll be on that blanket too."

I was enveloped with an incomparable feeling of safety and love.