PSAT haze 
Your gaze penetrates
Look, here’s how many shits you// gave

If I stand outside the gymnasium long enough,
will time reverse?

The area has this voodoo,
repetitive recurrences repeat
I’m// insane
The hallway outside of the gym is
I don’t know what it is, 
but I don’t feel too good when I pass through it.

Tell me again
please.

What’s going on?
Someone died.
Oh my god, who?
Do you remember —?
My head shakes as my hands rise to my mouth.
Tears fall faster than I can count.
The whole department is in the choir room. I’ll take you.
We walk ten steps.
How did he die?
We walk ten more steps. 

PSAT day,
I go through your hallway once more.
There she is, laughing with friends, sitting by the bathroom.
It’s Emilia.

Dead in my tracks,
The laughs echo back.
I’m faced with

myself.

There she is, at the entrance to the bathroom, across from
the gym.

Emilia looks so carefree. 
Maybe if I stare long enough,
I can become her again.

Continue to walk,
hallucinating again.
A sophomore with her friends,
Emilia wasn’t here.
Emilia wasn’t here.