gas panic
 
I wake up
chilled to the marrow
Sheets stuck to me like
wet tissue
 
Between my ears
the screams of dead children
whistle through the night
playground chants
still come from their dry, paper mouths
Gnarled faces knotted in pain
the lips desiccated
 
ready for the freezer
where the grey ice
packs up their nostrils
          little crystals
hardening
the fissures
of their soft,
licit brains.