A Dream Within a Dream

By Tabassum Tahmina Shagufta Hussein

Each pore of my skin longs for you.
 You look, gaze and stare.
 But still, there is silence.
 You walk by sometimes pretending to overlook me,
 Yet, you come to my desk with excuses.
 But again, you are too formal.
 You make me stay long hours for work.
 It is hard to be separated.
 Both know it's impossible.
 We are tied in wedlock.
 Alas! We can't even speak of love to each other.
 Still, our unsaid love continues.
 I dress in verdant green, joyful pink, azure blue, rapturous red.
 Only for you.
 I look at you and try to figure out your favourite colour.
 So, do you and put on my favourite coloured shirt.
 This joy shivers each pore of my being.
 I see the desire in your eyes.
 Your eyes sparkle and my lips smile.
 Yet, we do not tell each other of love.
 It is professional.
 Still, while I walk, I see through the transparent glass,
 You stopped talking with others, and your eyes are fixated on me.
 You notice every colour I wear, every jewellery I put on, every style I carry on.
 Your eyes compliment my aura and my attire silently and secretly.
 Our eyes only speak to each other in silence or among the madding crowd.
 What is it then? Love? Attraction? Or just infatuation?
 Why I feel your absence? Why I yearn to see you?
 Why you are jealous when I talk to other men?
 Why you call me or send me to message unnecessarily?
 In the garb of an official language, I can feel your desire to be kept in touch with me.
 I feel your care.
 If you and I are to be together, the Sun needs to move around the Earth.
 Paper wedlock is too strong to be torn apart.
 Both of us imprisoned by duty, responsibility and loyalty.
 Entrapped in loveless matrimony.
 I dream of you. In my dream, I see you.
 You are making love to me. I can feel your breath around my neck.
 You and I are one in ecstasy.
 Your scratch in my back wakes me.
 Oh! Dear, you are in front of me.
 Smiling, no secret.
 You and Me. I smile too.
 I hold your hand, and you move away hair from my face.
 Oh! No entrapment. We are ready to break the shackles at last.
 Finally, we speak about our love for each other.
 I feel peace. You just touched my hair with care.
 I feel the love now. There is no doubt.
 We love each other. You say………
 Crinnngggggg………….The morning alarm clock rings,
 I only wake up to realize you were mine in the dream and in a dream within a dream.

Note: An experimental work. Based on Double dream, A dream within a dream and lucid dream
theories.

Commentary: The narrator is convinced that she in love with the one in the workplace. Love is
mental and platonic Reader is listening to the narrator and not sure whether the other character is in love with the narrator or not. She dreams of their unification. Here it feels like she meant the Word “dream” for hope. Or it may be lucent Dreaming. She was Dreaming, and in the dream, they were making love may be considered as ‘a dream within the dream’. She wakes up and finds
herself with the man she loves. This part shows their mental intimacy and love. This is’ the
dream’ part. Suddenly she wakes up by alarm clock. She was having two layers of dream. The
first part of the dream, which is a dream within a dream could be a way for her mind to show her different scenarios or ‘what if situations that she would not otherwise think of. In the poem, we see her acceptance of the imprisonment of wedlock. The poem sounds platonic. A dream within a dream is a way to expand ideas that the dreamer would not consider outside of rational thought. She is sensible, and this dream within a dream is showing her subconscious or unconscious mind to relay her that her dream is not purely platonic. The subconscious or unconscious mind of her wants attention to be brought to, which is her secret physical desire of which her own conscious mind is not aware of. As per theory a dream within a dream can be an actual diversion from what is happening in the dream. The poem is experimental in the sense that which part is the dream and which part is a dream within a dream are open to interpretations. Whether it was a lucid dream or not, also open to interpretations. The readers have the liberty to interpret with the colours of their imagination.

Tabassum Tahmina Shagufta Hussein is an aesthete and humanitarian and Masters of Arts holder in British &A merican Literature from Dhaka, Bangladesh . her poems have appeared in several literary magazines and journals. She has contributed to five anthologies. She writes column for Different Truths Publications, India and other news portals in Bangladesh. Her poems have appeared in  Das Litwrarisch, an international referred journal of English Studies and Creative writing. She has also contributed to London School of Economics Human Rights Blog. Her past time is art and DIY making. She believes in humanity, equity and secularism. She finds beauty from the blade of grass to twinkling stars. Aestheticism and humanism are the essences of her existence.