A Dream

A DREAM

'How are
Your In-laws, Husband,
Parents, Children, Home and You? '
He asked in a cascade.

If he had
Put me first in the list,
I would have forgotten myself
When he came to the end
Of his long inquiry
That drills into my life.

I hardly know him,
Going by the number of words
Exchanged between us.
He is not close enough to me to ask me anything more than,
'How are you? '

Everyone has parents.
But he just assumes
That I have in-laws,
a husband, children and home!

He has a weakness
for assuming.

He was a stranger
But he felt intimate.
And I told him about
My dream.
It was a modest dream,
Almost trivial as dreams go,
But precious to me
Nonetheless.

Most dreams
Are like bubbles.
They burst
After floating for a while.
Only a few
Are like drops of rain
That make it to the ground
On the sands in a desert.

I assume
He wanted to ask me
About my dream.

If he had
The courage to ask,
I would have told him,
My dream was
Like that drop of rain.