dreams about her

we are caring for an old man who despite our solicitude shrinks into a monstrous wrinkled baby and then winks out of existence.

we are wandering through a room empty except for scattered toys.

i let her into my grandparents’ house just before it’s about to be sold. she scribbles on family pictures, defacing them. when my mother shows up, her anger is all at the scribbler, not at me for letting her in.

she’s doing aerobatics in a quaint little biplane. looping and spinning through the air. suddenly, she’s attacked by a huge bird, i know it’s a simurgh. i’m shooting flaming arrows at the bird from the roof of a moving train. the simurgh flees, her plane crashes to the ground, but she’s okay. she thanks me for giving her the idea to fly in the first place and says it was worth it. we agree that she can fly more safely next time if she tethers her plane to the train, like a kite.