Fever Dream

The room smells like smoke, wet and dewy like lime and soil. Something primal is here. It's quiet but with a low beat circulating around us, droning in the background, like we're in a whale's stomach
People come in and remind us of our time together, like no time has passed

Remember when you fell down the hill

Remember when you snorted whiskey

Remember when you ditched the play in the forest

You ask who they are and I start to explain but water is filling my mouth and pouring into my lungs. I cough some up every time I try to say something, "they're not wrong"

The men in the corner smirk knowingly

In my stupor I have a premonition that I'll move home and run my hands through your hair again, stay quiet and hope the life in me causes you to live

I try to tell you but your eyes are stuck on something else, smoke fills my nostrils and my eyes
I am slumped over, my posture is no good. There is no hope of correcting it. I stare ahead of me like someone staring at a disappointing dinner, my eyes hooded

I rub your back and your back becomes slick
You don't notice me becoming a puddle
There goes an eye, an arm, my neck
Like in a Salvador Dali painting

You finally ask me another question, you're beginning to remember, but all the light drains from the room before I can answer
I am water
And you are swimming away