ASSOCIATES (vol. 6, no. 2, November 1999) - associates.ucr.edu

by

Jennifer Bull
Cataloger
Ashland Public Library
www.ashland.lib.oh.us
bullje@oplin.lib.oh.us

I dreamt in MARC.
It was the weirdest thing.
Images floated in, faded out
as movie scenes, changing.

Field tags and text
appeared in the curtains,
opening two operas cataloged
that day. Gilbert and Sullivan's

The Pirates of Penzance
merged with H.M.S. Pinafore,
as costumed players bounced
around the 5XX's.

A sea-captain befrocked in a red
feathered hat and bushy mustache
sang a tale on the high seas, with
sailor-dancers leaping in the waves.

Shipmates with mop buckets
danced on the decks, while
the sails billowed, the ship
rocked and blue water splashed.

Scene two opened and the waves
turned into red triangles, as piercing
broken glass, standing, tilting,
falling into the misty now-blue sea.

The songs stirred my depths. Sound
rising and peaking into a mountain.
Pointed red triangles re-emerged
as a backdrop, parting, opened.

I, slowly-waking, wondered,
as the 245 loomed in the fog-
"Scan the record; check the [gmd]
and press F1 to save."

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