Black Dreams

Earlier this week, I had a dream that I was alone on a small farm. I carried a half full bucket of milk, and I went into the stable to milk the black goat. When I came in, she was dead. But her kid, soft and dark, dark black, was crying out in pain. I turned the kid over to find her udders swollen and dripping with milk. I was horrified, but to relieve the pain I milked her. She tried to drink it. At first I wouldn't let her, but then I realized how hungry she must be and I let her drink from the pail. I refused to drink any b

At first, I thought this was my brain's clumsy way of visual pun. I work for a campus paper called The Black Sheep and that day I had talked with my manager about a direct opposition pamphlet called The White Goat. I had no idea what the dead goat and the lactating kid meant, but it disturbed me.

Then this morning, I had a dream that a disaster, possibly supernatural, had obliterated parts of the world. I'm an American, but I dreamt my parents and I were in a largish compound in Britain. I got a bird's eye view: it was square and a ghostly bluish white. It had organized streets, a tall white clock tower at one corner and tall buildings at the other three. One side of the compound wall was, i know, a holding area for animals- horses, chickens, goats, dogs and ponies. A big, pristine, shallow pool lay in the dilapidated courtyard. There was no electricity in the compound, but even though it was always night, we could see well from the glowing walls. I remember overhearing a couple arguing about whether or not the disaster had hit America as well. I didn't think so, but the state of England meant there was probably no boat to take my family home. I was walking with my parents on the second floor of the wall around the courtyard when suddenly, soft, beautiful lights lit up the compound. My dad an I laughed in relief that the electricity was working. My mom was curious so she tried to jump off the wall to investigate. I caught her hand and told her that things might be getting better now- let's not be careless with our lives anymore. The courtyard filled with people laughing and celebrating and eating in the shallow pool. I ran to the teenage boys guarding the yard between the inner and outer animal walls. They told me to go away, but I told them the lights were back on and they abandoned their posts and ran to the courtyard to celebrate. I decided to take over for them, guarding. People began to set up picnic table in the yard and ate and celebrated. I heard someone say, "Who knew we didn't have electricity because we weren't feeding the horses?" I looked at the stables and the horses were eating greedily out of feeding bags. A hooded woman, her back to me, patted one on the head. I watched her drift through the crowd of people and I wasn't sure if anyone else could see her. Suddenly, she stopped by a celebrating table and slowly turned around and her face terrified me so much that I woke up. Her skin was jet błack and shiny- I immediately thought of licorice. Her eyes were the size of teacups, wide open to a small black pupil and unblinking. Her lips stretched from ear to ear in a grim, bright red smile. She had a black, rubbery dress made of her own skin. I didn't know if she was the sort of creature the guards were guarding against. I didn't know if she had brought the lights or been attracted to the lights. I woke up violently.

I looked up "black skinned woman dream," but I only found sights about African American beauty. These black dreams are getting more and more disturbing. If anyone has an idea what they mean, I'd be very grateful.