Swelling up before noon, I dreamt
my abalone ring came apart
Live fish and shell peeled off
my finger, in a retail store
of which you were the owner.
“It is rare indeed that people give. Most people guard and keep; they suppose that it is they themselves and what they identify with themselves that they are guarding and keeping, whereas what they are actually guarding and keeping is their system of reality and what they assume themselves to be.”
James Baldwin | Giovanni’s Room