sometimes i dream myself a rabid dog
foaming at the mouth, shivering with anticipation
thinking reason was polite
but amnesia might be safer

​

have you ever been scared of teeth 
you knocked out of your own mouth?
clattering on the ground like medals revoked
gold, silver, bronze, until you’re nobody
lost in a mausoleum of your finite splendor

​

the way gunshots ricochet in a fishbowl
the way painter’s tape never rips straight
the way a splinter will eventually burst into a sore

​

sometimes i dream myself a rabid dog
trying to speak with a swollen tongue
my body rejecting clean air, burying unhappiness
until it comes bubbling up
thinking you might be scared too
but you are only disappointed

​

will you stroke my bones to sleep?
will you stay me when i try to escape delusion?
you lift water to my lips, and i wonder
how many times would i have to dribble onto myself
for you to give up on me?

​

once, you tease
shooting my eyes with blood
and i am hit square in the hippocampus
thinking that this might not be a dream at all
but a forlorn life i was too afraid to realize

​

once, i repeat
thinking that you have never taken me seriously
but maybe it is the truth i would rather not realize
a fever i have to burn my way through