Distortion
By
Allison Cline-Saia
She lives in a world that exists only in her mind.
Fragmented and false.
Extant on a plane neither here nor there.
The dead are alive. The alive aren’t living.
What’s real is distorted and what’s invalid is factual.
Her world and my world co-existing in tangent,
Under the same roof.
Two realities intertwined.
I see her but not what she sees.
She sees what I see through a different lens.
Cracked. Warped by time.
Contorted by disease.
One foot in reality, one in a fantasy world that belongs to her.
I attempt to visit, but my passport is invalid and I’m stuck
On the outside.
So, I stand one foot here, one foot there
Holding her hand.
Guiding the blind in a world I cannot see.