I had a dream last night

Good for you Stan

Dream I say

I see it going to be one of those days Jane

We are all in the gutter

You might be but I am not

May I continue

But some of us are looking at the stars

Who said that

You should know

In my dream I was at a swimming pool

An odd swimming pool partially surrounded

By Georgian buildings

The pool was rather busy

I had swum when it was quiet

And was sitting on a step reading Eliot

I always read Eliot when visiting swimming pools

A pleasant woman and her two children sat near me

We struck up a conversation

She told me that the attached bookshop

Had dispensed with its stairs

And had stacked unloved books

In their place which surprised me

As books are as unstable as sand

I vowed to visit the bookshop

But you had vanished Jane

A little later I was in the bookshop

And the stairs had indeed been replaced

By books of every size and subject

I climbed with difficulty to the gallery

And during my journey found

Six copies of The Wasteland

I purchased them all without hesitation

The cashier Monika Mee informed me

That you had been seen in Tommy Tee

Which was a posh tea room poolside

I wandered there via the low waters

And saw you by a glass panel

Sipping tea with your friends

As I opened the decorated door

You raised your hand Jane

Stay where you are Stan

Do not come nearer

Just look at the state of you

Cut downs hand downs

Is that the way you dress

Come back when you are suitable

And that is why I lay in the gutter

In Beacon Deacon Street

Where in theory we all belong

But unlike most people

I was looking at the stars Jane

And they were looking down at me

Stan & Jane