Another Dream Poem by Leila Samarrai

An intense dream and it seems to summon the dreamer to assume a responsibility he or she may not want to assume. The time is out of joint. O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right, cries Hamlet. It's very understandable. It's what a psychologist called COMPASSION FATIGUE: I cannot take another another sad story into my heart, it's heavy enough already. That's what I think is happening in your poem: the speaker hears children's screams and doesn't know if it's peril they're in or play. If she investigates, and it's peril, she will now have a moral dilemma. Do I get further involved, or not? The language of the second stanza is convoluted and I admit I cannot penetrate it, but I think the speaker is paralyzed and feels both guilt for not helping but fear about helping. So the poem has no closure. We are stuck in the same uncomfortable, unenviable place as the speaker.