Open your eyes, says a voice.
Close-up of an insect, dead and brown, appendages curled and blackened.
I can’t, I whisper.
The lens pans slowly from the insect, one object of many in a gutter.
My mouth is full of worms.
The lens slides left to a patch of dead grass, yellowed and dry.
My mouth is full of worms! I say, drooling onto the pillow.
To the left of the grass: an old toy firetruck, broken, faded by the seasons.
A worm says: Follow the dead insect’s trajectory backward in time.
The lens returns to the dead insect, fixates on it.
Zoom in on the insect! says the worm, its voice an expanding drain.
And your ceaseless inquiries will be the end of you.
Fragrant cardboard, rotten food.
Zoom in until we enter the insect! says the worm.
No, I think.
Zoom in until we become the insect! says the worm.
The lens spirals toward, then onto the insect, gaining speed, catapulting into the insect—
Fear arms the heart, engages the lungs—
I wake—
Chills crisscross sweat like dew on my skin.
Your connection to this world will never be severed.
Open your eyes, says a voice.
truthfront 