Shook

From: Just now, sometime

It was dark.
Not city-dark—real dark.
The kind that feels like forgetting.

I woke up shaking.
Heart running nowhere fast.
Dream gone, but me still inside it.

Paralyzed. I didn’t get up.
Didn’t reach for a screen.
Couldn’t.

I put one hand on my chest.
The other on my belly.
And I stayed. Just like that.
Forever.

The breath was slow to come.
But it came.

In
Out
In
Out

I whispered something small.
Not to anyone in particular.
Maybe to Antoine, the mouse.
Just to say. Just to stay.

The sheets cooled again.
My ribs unclenched.
I remembered I was. And I was here.
That it was safe enough to sleep,
even if I couldn’t.

I’ll probably forget what the dream was about.
But not the shaking.
And not the staying.

-Pea