…handfuls of air and fire, kicking, burning!
darkness.
perhaps i awake a little. i do sometimes when the fire swallows me
that's bad
when i wake up all the way, i can't get back to sleep. i try, but i've never been able to.
this time i don't wake up all the way.
i fade into the second part of the dream—
darkness.
darkness brightening.
stars.
stars casting their cool, pale, glinting light.
"we couldn't see so many stars when i was little," my stepmother says to me.
she's speaking in spanish, her own first language.
she stands still and small, looking up at the broad sweep of the Milky Way.