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 kelpI lied next to her and listened quietly to her breathing
The smell of death permeated the air
Slowy she reached over toward me
Her eyes stared straight up at the ceiling
Her small fingers pinched me like a pair of pliers
I screamed from the pain and begged for mercy
Fingers of the helpless exerted unbelievable strength
I screamed againA woman in white uniform came running toward me
My eyes flinched from the pain
I glanced across the bed and the girl had vanished
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. I jot down some lines back in July and finally completed the poem in December.