I stab him, again, but death is relative.  
He staggers with incredulity, then  
charges with desperate anger.   

We knock things down: coat racks, chairs,  
a sewing machine, a giraffe, a Ferris wheel,  
Brancusi's Bird in Space, china that doesn't break.  

A commercial breaks about unbreakable china. 

We run after each other, through carnival music,  
mostly he after me.   

A billboard flashes the word S E Q U I N S. 

Benjamin Franklin steps in to read his Declaration,  
sees us, turns around, exits.  

Behind us, armed with quill and notebooks, out of breath,  
runs the analyst.   

I'm naked and tickled, from head to toe, by fear,  
which the evening decocts in medicinal flacons.   

I shriek hysterically, "I refuse to wake up."  
"And I," he shouts, "refuse to die." 

Someone else decides to wake up. 
Someone else decides to die.   

Reality is irresistible. 

________

Indelible , October 2025