Worst Nightmare
I stood without a podium,
alone there in the odeum.
The lantern light was odious,
the theater commodious.
My stomach tied up in a knot,
I realized that I had not
even seen a single script
and therefore I was ill-equipped
no matter how hard I was driven,
to say the words that I’d been given.
And furthermore, how crass and rude
that I was standing in the nude,
center stage, in full display,
without a clue of what to say,
before an audience, all staring
at the body I was baring!
And here I brought the curtain down
and awoke to find a dressing gown
draped around me in a heap,
relieved to find I’d been asleep!!!
For those of you who will ask, this is not fiction. This is a dream I’ve dreamed a number of times during my life. Prompt words for today are lantern, knot, Odeum and without. Image by Velizar-Ivanov on Unsplash.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
I think we all have had some version of this dream. A subconscious fear of embarrassing ourselves.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So it seems there should be other lineless nekkid people up there on the stage with me!!! ;o)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! They have their own stages/ public places where they are trying to hide their shame.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on OPENED HERE >> https:/BOOKS.ESLARN-NET.DE.
LikeLike
Thanks, OIKOS, but when I go to that link it just says “Coming Soon.” Were you aware of this?
LikeLike
A parody of your real life. In a sense, you do strip yourself bare. Thumbs up and abrazos.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aha.. perhaps that is what makes me able to do so now. An interesting insight.
LikeLike
I have had almost a similar nightmare, but real. My mom packed a white linen suit in my little suitcase when I went off to college… The only “dress” thing I had to go to my first public speaking contest and I had a great serious speech all planned out and memorized~! But with the many giggles as soon as I walked out on the stage I realized my error. So in my embarrassment, I quickly changed my talk to one much more comical vain, and actually won a prize for having one of the best talks.. So be prepared, but if in a pinch and white linen suit (a size too small) an extemporaneous talk can work very well, thank you~! I did order a proper jacket as soon as I could afford it.. (PS: my mother wanted me to be a preacher and that is what they wore in her southern evangelical church, instead she turned me into a quick thinking comedian~!) Thank God~!
Good poem, bad dreams seem to come and go, thank goodness we mostly forget the really bad ones by the time we wake up, but for me, some are reoccurring and sad~!.
LikeLike
Good for you. No, I had not read that comment yet. You turned a nightmare into a coup. Good for you.
LikeLike
Weird things come in dreams at times. Might be an after effect of a story we hear or read or a serial we watch on TV or any incident in life triggers the dreams like these. Enjoyed the poem.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s what my mother always said. I always felt it was more an expression of my insecurities or fears.
LikeLike
We must all have some version of this dream. Mine used to be showing up for an exam for a course I didn’t remember attending — and naked, too. Garry’s is always doing some kind of media work and realizing they are about to attack him — and he’s naked. Of course. The nudity must be our unconscious’s way of telling us we’re helpless. Clothing is a protection, I guess.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I have the classroom one as well..Why didn’t I wear clothes like everyone else. And yes, I don’t even know anything about the class content.
LikeLike
Those exposure dreams are part of teaching, but I think we all have one or another of them. BUT this is a fascinating photograph.
LikeLike
Not mine, but a free photo on Unsplash that I thought illustrated the poem well.
LikeLiked by 1 person