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Awake

Asleep

Awake

The wakeful tihtmare of confusion

Terrible pain There was so with fierce sharp claws Raccoons? Possums? A rabid fox? I didn’t know if I was still alive

I was surely dead for a while, then the bugs wokethe blood fros and ran up and downat my privates

Then a flash of light, so bright I saw the spackle of blood outlined on my swollen eyelids

Was I dead? Was I in a different world? InOr was it a dog barking—

Another flash, so bright it nearly shook me

The pain in h a vein inin a strea

I tried to one!

Ohon that side

I couldn’t taste the air

I could only feel ers were gone

Inwhite gown she wore under her housecoat The violet inkstand, the silver pen Mama smiled at me “I think you’ll like this poem, Ben It’s about you, baby”