Sylvia Wynter's Dream

a fair plump woman with short black curls, a sad smile and draped in a white dress observes a sleeping baby girl cradled in the embrace of the only grandmother she knows, she drifts silently at the side of the bed, no shadow beneath her feet, no rise and fall of her chest, no scent, no sound, no impression of her existence, except for a working mother who returns late at night to see a lady in white watching over her child

            the lady in white visits once again, no movement, no thought, just looking at a grandchild that the dead has no claim to, with no hope of holding her, no hope of seeing her sweet smile, no hope of hearing her laughter, no hope of hearing her say grandmother, for she can only remain as the lady in white that visits during the night

            the lady in white appears, again and again, each night, melancholy at the thought that this sleeping child will never know another grandmother besides the one by her side, she will know not her name, nor what she was like when alive, and so again and again the lady in white remains a guardian angel for her granddaughter at night until she grew older then she faded out of sight, content that the child now knows that she, Lillian, was the lady in white who remained by her bedside each night