<\/p>\n
When I dream, I am stitched into different skin. I break into blue for my father, a cold purple for my mother.\u00a0 They are Mary and Lucifer on a merry go round, and round and down the staircase with a thud. I can see the black lashes thick with blood and one hand on the bible; hearts swollen and pounding. Our generational gore is still glinting beneath the floorboards of the basement, let me tell you.<\/p>\n
With every sleepless night, there is a small piece of my lungs that stays treading water. I am somewhere expanded beyond the horizon of my eyelids while the air slips past my face before I can catch it.<\/p>\n
Dreaming and breathing are more alike than you’d think. I tend to drown before I make it to this part.<\/p>\n
How do you know what your words feel like if you can’t see them?<\/em>\u00a0 I ask the reflection.<\/p>\n It’s simple<\/em>, she says. I see you smothered in these letters like old acrylics ; You are drawling\u00a0 and dripping. Too simple<\/em>, she says, and my legs cave inside like\u00a0 mountain valleys.<\/p>\n “Good Thing,”\u00a0 Katie was shaking her head. “Not usually.”\u00a0 “What’s your trouble?”\u00a0 \u00a0“Nightmares.”\u00a0 \u00a0 “How much is there?” no one asked. “A million, a million.”<\/p>\n The pill tapped the counter at Katie’s right hand.<\/p>\n No sign of anyone, the lights were out here too.<\/p>\n “God!” she screamed. “Judas!”<\/p>\n Nothing.<\/p>\n The third match would not light. “You’re a fool to betray me.”\u00a0 \u00a0“Who are you talking to?”<\/p>\n Katie put her hand over her mouth. Katie<\/p>\n -Headaches, Katie.<\/p>\n Suspect that Katie wasn’t Katie.<\/em><\/p>\n Katie was dead, wasn’t she?<\/p>\n Katie- I must think of her as Katie<\/em>–<\/p><\/blockquote>\n “Medication will kill you, I always say.”\u00a0 \u00a0 “You use it too?”<\/p>\n “Since I was a baby.”<\/p>\n There they go again. And again. And again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I became more captivated by grace than the mere idea of God as the years went on, as the years fell on. My body ran like a thread in an old blanket, it ran from my skin as a wounded dog would, hungry and frothing in the jaw.<\/p>\n And still, it seemed as if my suffering was merely suffering, though it came went in cerulean forms.<\/p>\n There’s so much powder, white hills. Tasting strawberry mixed with stomach acid and sinking lower by the minute.<\/p>\n 3;35, and the angels keep singing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I dream, I am stitched into different skin. I break into blue for my father, a cold purple for my mother.\u00a0 They are Mary and Lucifer on a merry go round, and round and down the staircase with a thud. I can see the black lashes thick with blood and one hand on … Continue reading “Artificial Strawberry”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2054"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2165,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054\/revisions\/2165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}