Where the Indian's head had been carved into a skull

it is happening
more frequently
the effect of remembering
the dream
while dreaming
seeds another dream
based on this remembrance

there were three mnemonic images
I grasped onto while dreaming:

a portrait of death in red
people naked in the moonlight
a dollar coin imprinted with "There Is No Telling"

each manifested several dreams
as I focused on them
the original dream
buried under
subsequent retellings

I was in a beach house
open windows
perched
on an edge of the dunes
wooden stairways
ocean breezes
lifting the light curtains
a woman there
I was painting her portrait
outside in a garden
were bright red flames
growing in rows
each with an object
I could not figure
moving inside of the fire
the woman went out
into the garden
and collected the flames
gave to them to me
to place on my palette
to use while painting her
partway through this process
I understood
the woman was death
and the red flames
I was using for paint
were souls she had collected
I wasn't upset by this
it felt as if she and I were
co-conspirators
hiding away from the world
in our isolated beach house

then there was an apartment complex
old and weathered
with a central courtyard
some confusion
over where I was going to stay
the people there
were open and free
elements of the early hippie movement
but in a mature way
in the central courtyard
there were huge stones
with water running
all around them
the people were naked
laying with no shame
on the stones
under the light
of a full moon
everything was bathed in blue
and the people
all appeared beautiful
some were making love
other casually caressing each other
I walked amongst them
alone and distant

as I thought about
these two dreams
while dreaming
a silver dollar coin
appeared before me
it was unusual
and i suspected
it was fake
perhaps hollow
along the top arc
of the circle was written
in capital letters:
"THERE IS NO TELLING"
I studied the coin
to see how the words
had been carved out of the metal
thinking of Indian nickels
I had seen
where the Indian's head
had been carved
into a skull