The Dream

Mother who has a miscarriage, and has a dream before it happens.

'You're too far away'- she cannot physically touch her child, which is in her stomach, as she'd like to. 'This mother's love inside me hurts too much.' Referring to the pain of the child kicking against her and the want to actually touch and know the child she bears.

'Prettily waving/ Playing on the sand'- Her vision of what she will do with this child of hers.

'Dizzy dizzy dizzy As I speak Like a tumbling cat.' She witnesses, in her dream, the child die just as it dies in her stomach. On the beach, it falls over even as she speaks to it of her dreams and plans for it.

'I watch in fascination Like a vampire bat.' Since she's in a dream state, she doesn't yet realise the implications. However, as cats eat bats (theoretically), she is nevertheless being eaten by the pain of seeing her dream-child in pain. She's a vampire because her own body is eating the child within her and killing it.

'Don't do it don't do it Don't give it away We'll use it up tomorrow If we don't use it today.' She's telling the child not to die. She's already thinking in mother-talk, using 'tomorrow, love' as a way of deterring the child from ending its own life.

'Rest your head Oh just put it outside' In the dream, her miscarriage is being seen blatantly. She imagines giving birth, and the pain, and she wants the child to come out and rest its head in the outside world, however:

'All wrapped up in ribbons' Refers to the blood around its premature face as it's born.

The next stanza refers to her waking up and realising the reality of the loss.