i dreamed a car crash,
and my fingers burned with the sensate nothing
that seared over me
i could not scream because i had lost the right,
and as the world melted around me
torn and shorn in glass, metal, rubber
burning in black flame and circling overhead
then into my lungs
i thought
for just a moment
of my childhood
and then it was gone
as was the dream
and i was left in the quiet of my bed
— ptkh 080617