Red Bird, Dead Ground

I was in a field, but it was also just outside a low building. There was a professor there (Rhys Ifans), and we were talking. I think my family might have been there as well, but I am not sure. In the middle distance there was a ditch. Everything was in shades of pale yellow and brown - like dried ditch grass in the fall.

A small bird/butterfly settled on the back of my shoulder. It spread large red rings across my back. It was a rich, bright red. I remember thinking that this was rare and special. The little bird climbed along my arm and settled in the palm of my hand, fanning its large red wings gently. The bird's body was very small, like a hummingbird's almost, except it had a large hooked beak that was white and black. I was admiring the bird's feathers, which were red but also flashed orange and sometimes had a pattern on them, sometimes they were just tipped in another shade of the same spectrum.

The bird flew away, but returned repeatedly as I walked about. The professor saw this and asked if he could have the bird, because they were very rare and he had thought they had left the area all together. The bird settled on my back, wings outstretched like it was trying to flatten itself against my back. The professor did not ask again, and I did not give him the bird.

This sequence repeated itself - the bird would alight on my shoulder and fan its wings, crawl along my neck or back and settle into the crook of my neck or perch on my shoulder, then perch on my shoulder, or crawl along my arm to my hand, where I would let it sit in my palm and look at me. At one point it was pecking at my palm as if to to look to food.

***

Just on from this dried yellow field there were slot machines set in rows under the pale sun. To the right of them was a series of black, gothic, dead plants in black and white. There was a black iron fence, encrusted with dead flower vines. It was like an Edward Gorey setting, or something from the Addams Family.  There was a girl there, in a black dress, with black hair, and she was depressed and angry. People she'd known had died and were buried and it was her fault and she couldn't fix it. I told her that she could if she was willing to talk to the dead. She walked over to the cornfields and started talking to them, saying she was sorry. From the grey and black stalks, a bright green and gold tendril grew up and out of the ground, shining. The girl started crying, and apologized, and a brilliant green vine erupted from the field.  I put my hand on the dead, gray ground, and said, "You see? She is sorry - Can you feel it?" The ground rolled under me like a wave, and the moss turned green and a nearby plant started sprouting light purple flowers. There was a great sense of joyful reconciliation as the earth sprang to life under my hands, and the girl in the black dress was laughing and crying as people appeared around her, hugging her.

***


There was a middle bit to this dream - which involved much more action. I want to say there was a need to escape or solve something, but I cannot remember it.