Is madness simply the total loss of one’s faculties as seen from the outside,

Or the inner recognition that one’s faculties may no longer be trustworthy?

Shivering with the loss of sleep

Chemistry undone

It winks at her

That place between

Sanity and otherwise

You cannot have me

Her flesh is cold

Heating pads

Blankets

Nothing can warm

The mind is feverless

Though the body gripped

Chills not quelled

It holds its breath,

This little interpreter,

Traveling through realms

In soft spots

Of the universe

Where dimensions make way

Did you see me?

I’m not there

She points at Earth’s solar system

Or there

She points at Earth

Or even there

She points at a spot in North America

And probably not there either

She points at a slumbering woman

Then where?

I’m not really sure

Perhaps consciousness 

Is a sea of waves

And brains merely receivers

For that which we all share

Though participate willingly

Only when personality is muted

Bluster is shut up

Will power is dormant

Arms are slack

Perhaps being severed upon awakening

Into discrete units

Is bearable to most

A hitch or a hiccup

But too austere to the sensitive

Too much to endure

Senses come to speak

Saying, let’s go back

This isn’t where we belong

She nods

I might miss it though

But what’s to miss

If it’s only a fraction of wakefulness?