{"id":2039,"date":"2026-05-07T12:05:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T17:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/?p=2039"},"modified":"2026-05-23T11:10:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T16:10:58","slug":"the-psychic-ruins-my-belief-in-the-afterlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/2026\/05\/the-psychic-ruins-my-belief-in-the-afterlife\/","title":{"rendered":"My Friend Tells Me Her Dream On a Camping Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

My friend\u2019s favorite pastime is gardening,<\/span>
mine is writing poems.<\/span><\/p>\n


I\u2019ve told her I hate poems that begin with dreams<\/span>
because no one really cares.<\/span><\/p>\n


After shaking the dew from our chairs<\/span>
and settling into our morning coffee,<\/span><\/p>\n


she starts. Her uncle killed a bison<\/span>
in Yellowstone while the family vacationed.<\/span><\/p>\n


Strange she was with her cousins<\/span>
and even stranger it was with a bow and arrow,<\/span><\/p>\n


not a gun. So much blood spurted<\/span>
from the bison\u2019s side and then suddenly she<\/span><\/p>\n


heard the geyser gurgling, spitting<\/span>
filling the sky. She and the family rushed<\/span><\/p>\n


to see it, leaving the uncle behind.<\/span>
I don\u2019t ask her to say more.<\/span><\/p>\n


By noon, we\u2019re hours into a hike<\/span>
and she says to me,<\/span> My uncle<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n


is actually my father and<\/span><\/em>
I am the bison.<\/span><\/em> I wonder what I do<\/span><\/p>\n


with that. It\u2019s just a dream but<\/span>
it\u2019s still a serious allegation.<\/span><\/p>\n


If I were a real friend,<\/span>
I\u2019d ask:<\/span> What did he do to you?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n


I buy time and say,<\/span> Things can<\/span><\/em>
get mixed up in dreams<\/span><\/em>, like<\/span><\/p>\n


we can taste a blossoming apple tree,<\/span>
the scent of hibiscus can sit on our tongues.<\/span><\/p>\n


Keep pondering<\/em>,<\/span> I say.<\/span>
At dusk, light splits among the trees<\/span><\/p>\n

and I place our chairs by the fire.<\/span>
I\u2019d really like to talk about my upcoming trip<\/span><\/p>\n


cruising the Danube this fall<\/span>
or how my oldest daughter wants to have a child.<\/span><\/p>\n


The sausages begin to sizzle and spit<\/span>
in the pan over the open fire. We pass the whiskey<\/span><\/p>\n


back and forth. I sense she\u2019s thinking about the dream.<\/span>
I ask,<\/span> Do you know if the bison lived?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n


She tells me it died<\/span>,<\/span> but since she appeared in the dream,<\/span>
it reaffirms I have forgiven my father<\/em>,<\/span> she says.<\/span><\/p>\n


Late into the night, we talk about other things:<\/span>
how we find ourselves time-bent, happy<\/span><\/p>\n


not to be alone, a bit tired, grateful for some friends<\/span>
and family, and the dog snoring at our feet.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My friend\u2019s favorite pastime is gardening,mine is writing poems. I\u2019ve told her I hate poems that begin with dreamsbecause no one really cares. After shaking<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2039"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2153,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039\/revisions\/2153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}