Small vines of light
Crawl down from the sun
Pull my eyelids open
Scream into them
“You need to move
Time is sinking”
Instinctually
I pull the covers over the back of my head
Lay facedown
I like to feel the weight of them
Grounding me
I need to rise
Or let the rays fade
To Background noise
The trouble is that they’re LOUD
Front and center
Not peripheral
Not to be ignored
I try to surface from
The cave
Covers swallowing my face
Bags of sand
weight my limbs
Everything heavy
Molasses air
No life saver
I crawl on my elbows
Skinning them
Skimming for oxygen
It’s a lot
Right
Now
Not to know the anatomy
Of this sky
Still shuffling
A vaporous guest
Sits atop my chest
pins my arms
I’m Kicking and screaming
He Laughs at my infantile
attempts
to free myself
Kisses my lips
softly and says
“It’s
All
really
A lot
Right now
It’s okay
If you Lie down”
Energy waning
I sink back into myself
Wait for time to pass
Re-living the same four minutes
circling a small tank
It’s quiet here
Maybe I’ll peel myself off the floor
Some day…
If I have
the will
to surface