I often suffer nightmares
Recurring and tangible
Live and in color,
Except
Something is always off

The slightness is what haunts me
So subtle
This seems like deja vu

It is fall, and I can't feel it on my skin
Or it's night, but there aren't stars
I'm up high, yet not afraid
All the usual beasts are way too big
Or I am very small

Smaller still, the tightrope I walk upon waking
I pluck it while I fall asleep
I can feel the moment I drift away
My body loses tension

The slack lifeline scares me awake

All my friends here don't have faces
Blank spaces where expressions used to be
Yet I recognize them all
And if their questions are real,
And their answers make sense,
How can I tell who's who?

These things I wonder
Wrapped within the folds of my brain
Seared into my waking world
Weighing down my every effort

Are these things the right colors?
Is this voice still my own?
Who's touch am I feeling?
How much time has passed?

wake up

Someone's whispering to me,
But I don't recognize the sound

WAKE UP