At first she caressed me like her lover:
He held me in his arms and I forgot the world.
The only thing that existed
Was where he and I were touching,
All else was black.
The only moment that existed in time
Was where he and I were kissing.
There would be no before and there would be no after.

Then she lied to me like a distant friend:
Telling me nothing existed.
Nobody else in the world but he and I.
That where I was was not where I was.
And when I was, well,
She told me time did not exist.
And I believed her.

She put her hand around my throat and squeezed:
I relived my life every second, speeding back up to this one.
I was another person, some older woman
I lived simultaneously through my entire life
Being everything and nothing.
As if running out of air my body twitch and tweaked and jumped-
He told me, "Shhh, calm your breathing."
But I hardly heard him.
"Try to go to sleep."
But I didn't know what sleep was.
The only thing keeping me slightly tethered
To this earth, to this time
To existence
Was focusing on him
Feeling where our bodies touched
Kissing him-
But he told me
"Try to go to sleep."
And turned his head away-
"Try to go to sleep."
And at some point
I did.