Real
by Jessica Knauss
If you aren’t real,
who ate the smoked almonds?
why is my laundry done and folded?
why do I still wake to your alarm?
who is hugging me in this photograph?
whose name is on these old airline tickets?
why does the room still smell like you?
why do I see your face over mine whenever I close my eyes?
If you are real,
why am I walking with no one singing in my ear?
why am I drinking cranberry juice all alone?
why do I have to wait so long for the shower to run hot?
why is no one pressing the snooze six times?
why don’t I feel your warmth and smoothness when I reach over?
If there is a place between “real” and “not real,”
other than “not,”
then that is where you are.
I would rather have you here.
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About Jessica Knauss
Born and raised in Northern California, Jessica Knauss has become something of a wanderer. She has published fiction in Bewildering Stories, Do Not Look at the Sun, (Short) Fiction Collective, Full of Crow Quarterly Fiction, Sillymess, This Mutant Life and Short, Fast, and Deadly. Her poetry can be found at Haggard & Halloo, Apollo’s Lyre and The Shine Journal. You can find her novella Tree/House, about a woman’s awakening through sleeping in trees, as well as her poetry book, Dusk Before Dawn, at Amazon. View her blog for updates on her writing.