I dreamt that almost everyone I knew was participating
in a horrible test in which whatever I did, I had to do better.
Nothing I did was good enough.
Everything I wanted was questioned
as something I did not deserve.
In this dream, no one helped me without also hurting me.

In the dream, I thought that I must be dead.
Where else but hell would people behave in such a way?

I woke up.
There was no difference between the dream
and my life,
and I could not stop crying.