I'm in white heels and a bouncy black dress that twists when I do.

I can't see myself but damn it if I can't feel the heat bubbling up

under my skin and propelling my words across the void to

angrily land where welts will be seconds later on my neighbor's face.

I don't remember the details, but what else is new.

There's a group, a family, I think it must be mine.

In in a wooden house, walls, floor, rafters, all cherry or oak

or some other ridiculous species we shouldn't be able to afford.

So already I'm feeling like a little animal in a forest who's got a mark

on its head and plans for its future that aren't its own.

So I run. I'm so angry, and I run.

Full tilt through a piano room and then a hallway and

very, very intentionally

into a door.

It doesn't move, so I pivot on the spot and just scream silently forward

with every little atom of me

still listening to chatters floating in from a few rooms over,

they're still unaware. Good.

I collide with some set of chests holding candles and glass,

and my brain is on its tippytoes but nothing happens.

So it's back to the door.

I don't know if I go through this simply

in order to turn around and run the other way

or if this in itself serves a purpose. I don't know what's behind that door

so the answer to that is really out of the question.

Regardless I'm running back to the chests, shoulder sharp and pointed out,

and I see it tilt, but not enough, though a glass shatters and I am happy.

Away, I return.

Finally! It tilts tilts tilts past its center of gravity,

and I know this time I did it.

I felt the piece of glass slide into my shin straight to safety

amoungst a cluster of my veins,

but I am not there to see the crash because I'm halfway to my door.

I am ecstatic but I need to hide. I feel like there's

a seldom used room behind the door, which would make it safe

to enter and burrow down into. I pull the glass from my skin and

look at how thick it is and red at the tip. I don't feel anything.

The brief pleasure the chaos has brought me is over

and this chapter is going black.

I don't know what happened

but I have the distinct feeling that I am listening to someone

reading my funeral rites.

For a moment I panic and worry I am awake in a coffin,

but then I roll over and assure myself I'm an angel.

Then I wake up.