> My audience consisted of peacocks, pigeons, my long-dead parents, two cypresses, several young nurses crouching around, and a family doctor so old as to be almost invisible.



Dear Don,

Has anyone tried to de-cypress this message? Some of the word/images seem familiar. I just read the other day that Dante's mother dreamed of him as a peacock, which may not have anything to do with it. The cypresses have certainly been seen before and that family doctor has a familiar look about him. But who are those young nurses "crouching around" - - maternal lionesses? The pigeons have me stumped. Peace symbols?

The name Laura too - - any Dante association there?

I think I smell a - -  good grief, what's the word? symbolic images - - allegory?

Carolyn