Phantom Child

Her tiny body lied lifeless on starch white cotton sheets
Glassy eyes glistened with tears from pain
Dishelved hair lied around her head like wind-swept kelp

I lied next to her and listened quietly to her breathing
The smell of death permeated the air

Slowly she reached over toward my hand
Her eyes fixated on the ceiling
Her small fingers pinched like a pair of pliers
I screamed from the pain and begged for mercy
Fingers of the feeble dug in with incredible strength
I screamed again

A woman in white uniform came running toward me
My eyes flinched from the pain
I glanced across the empty bed

JLee 12/27/2001

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This poem is about a dream I had in the summer of 2001. I rarely remember my dreams (good or bad), but I did remember this one vividly. It was essentially a dream within a dream. It could also be hallucination within a dream because by the end of the dream I knew clearly that I was in some kind of medical institution and possibly a psychiatric ward. Yes, all very eerie and I have no clue why I had this dream.

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