I've had this nightmare 2x in 2 weeks...

...that you are holding me down, and I'm desperatly digging and clawing to get out of your house. Everything in there constricts my air. There's fire for me to dodge, tall walls for me to scale, and barbed fences for me to climb over. But I keep falling down. And the farther I run, the closer you are behind me. You catch me, and I curl into a heavy, broken ball...stifled under your weight. All I want is to be let go--to speak and dance and run and live--like other girls.

I smell your house--squeeze my eyes closed--and then, I wake up. And just as I did back then, I peek under the bed to make sure there is no monster.

Painting by D. Lane Taylor