October 11, 2022 - Elizabeth Lerman’s “For some reason, the crickets are louder”

I dream because it is so easy to. It comes naturally to me, like getting up and living might to others. I am not afraid of much, when my eyes are closed. Things sound different there and for some reason, the crickets are louder. Here, it has been quiet for a long time and I wonder how I am still breathing. Not because I am in any imminent danger but because I can’t imagine that I’m not. My mind is full of basements I am too scared to search. There are so many sets of stairs I won’t go down, almost certain I will not come back up, and I swear it is getting darker down there, but then, I might say to myself, it is getting darker everywhere, that’s just what days look like when they end.