Engulfed

by Alishya Almeida

Outside the cage, I am
engulfed by the disasters
you report to me, a hand shoving
everything into spaces i had
left for imagination
days meant for riding trains or
empty buses through the city,
or fumbling back in the past
for my mind to rewrite things,
make them alright
but there isn’t enough space
left because of you

so i speech myself
another existence
feel the sky in my lungs

and double check
as i run out the front door
to see if you’re following.