“My Language Arts teacher was trying to explain how light works, and said something about, ‘If your hand was somehow turned invisible, it wouldn’t exist.’ Which scared the heck out of me and made no sense. So I went home and wrote a poem about how that made me feel, and I kind of ended up ranting about a bunch of things that I thought were scary and ridiculous. “
A Dream Inside a Dream, Inside a Great Big Dream
by Bethany Conner
Age 14, Essex Middle School, Grade 8
Today I heard that you are never really touching anything.
Today I was told if I somehow became invisible, I would not exist.
I wanted to cry.
We are so much more complex than that. I would still have my mind, wouldn’t I, if my hand could not be seen?
Sometimes I wonder if this is all in my head. Sometimes I’m terrified this is all a dream.
I like to write stories about those common fears, but I would never believe them to be true.
Only in my wildest nightmares do pigs fly
invisible people do not exist
I am never really touching anything
and my dreams are dreams inside of another dream.
Only in science fiction novels.
and not the good ones. The garbage only true sci-fi fans like.
It’s like a bad ending to a great book.
But by the end of the day, I realize
it doesn’t matter.
Even if this is a dream
it’s a damn good one.
And I’m in no hurry to wake up.