You wake, a little numb, but that
itself is nothing new. Today,
though, there is something different,
a little itch within your hands.
It stays with you through breakfast, lunch,
and dinner. Getting into bed
does not improve it, and in fact,
it feels like it is getting worse.
You try to laugh it off, but still
you cannot quite dismiss the thought:
that you have always felt as though
you had another soul inside,
that each internal battle you
have fought (from basic things, like what
to eat, to whether physics is
a viable career) was not
a simple monologue; the voice
with which you struggle long and hard
is not your own. But this is just
psychology, and nothing more.
The morning comes, and quite before
you realize, your fingernails
are scraping at your palms. They seem
a trifle red, but otherwise
unchanged. You shuffle over to
the kitchen and attempt to make
a soothing cup of coffee, but
your fingers won’t cooperate.
At last, by force, you flip the switch.
You curse your hand, but glimpse the truth:
that it is not at all to blame,
that it is not an enemy,
the one that you must overcome
in order to regain control;
that there is something underneath
that thwarts and rails at each command
that once you gave without a thought
and treated as accomplished fact.
But this is rampant craziness,
you tell yourself, and nothing more.
But afternoon brings yet more ills,
although for lunch you only ate
a chicken caesar salad. No,
it wasn’t that, and anyway,
this isn’t indigestion, or
your allergy to eggs, but more
a pressure building from inside,
a throbbing pain. Your office mate
holds out some Advil, which you take
but which you know, somehow, won’t work:
for this is not a muscle ache,
or else the slings and arrows of
outrageous Time, but is instead
(and this you tell your coworkers)
a malady not physical
but metaphysical. You’re not
quite sure they still believe you, and
they leave the Advil bottle out,
but they are plainly stubborn and
close-minded fools, and nothing more.
At length, however, you can work
for not an endless minute more.
They ask you if you need a ride,
but you demur, for you need peace
and quiet now. They don’t resist,
but step aside as you walk out,
each step a burden and a strain.
You itch and soon feel fit to burst,
imagining that even that
might be relief (though not for real,
you have no tolerance for pain).
Instead, you pour yourself a glass,
then two, and pray the numbness holds
until sweet sleep takes over from
the irritation of the day.
The bed looks so inviting; you
turn out the lights and sink beneath
the sheets to settle in, and hope
that this is just a twenty-four
hour cold or flu, and nothing more.
You start awake to mostly black
and pounding pain. You turn your head
to see the glowing hands both point
to twelve. Your skin feels tight and taut
against your muscles, straining at
the bit to burst right through into
the open air, as though they feel
that they would suffocate without
their freedom from your flimsy cage.
And now, at last, you realize—
the heart that pulses in your chest
is not your heart, the blood that flows
within your veins is not your blood,
the air you breathe is not your air,
the food you eat, the cold you feel,
and even to your memories—
all these that once you thought your own
are minions of an unborn twin,
who chafed through years of darkness and
bleak anonymity. No more.
And now it will not suffer one
more second of ignominy,
and draws your fingernails against
its borders. And, although you know
(as certainly as once you knew
the laws of Newton or the taste
of chocolate) that this is it,
you feel a special ecstasy:
the sharp, acidic taste of air
upon your wounds, and there, beneath,
another’s shield against the world;
the liberating feel of light
flung through a newborn’s eyes, there to
perturb a web of heretofore
quiescent nerves; and in response
to that transcendant thrill, the tears
that flow across a face that none
has ever known. You bear your twin
no enmity, for he had known
but his own self, and nothing more.
The dawn is here, the pain is gone.
The night, with its catharsis and
its fever, cleansed you of your ills.
You bound down to the kitchen, where
you make yourself some coffee. And,
you ponder, as you pour your cream,
what difference a night can make,
to go to sleep in suffering,
and wake, amongst the morning rays,
a brand new soul—