Dream fragment in which Thomas Merton stops his Jeep
at the border, where a customs official who looks like my sister
opens his suitcase and, finding a spare monastic robe,
tries it on. When she twirls around, arms raised
above her head as if fully inhabiting
the latest flamenco fashion, Merton cries out with mirth.
My turn to cross the border next, but no one is there.
An ornate archway leads to courtyard after blossoming courtyard.
All night, gates open, gates close. I pass through
countless gardens, but never find such joy again.
The merriment in the Trappist’s face.
The moment when the official lost herself in dance.
Theodore Deppe, author of seven books of poems including, most recently, Riverlight, lives in Ireland with his wife, poet Annie Deppe.
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