Adrift in a dream world, I came upon the carefully curated concept of a human person.

For a long time I allowed myself the diversion.

The siren song of illusion drew me toward its center by the pit of my stomach –

the closer I got, the brighter-lit specific neural pathways became

and I liked it because it was like finding new rooms in the house you’ve always lived in

and thought you knew every corner of.

It took years to separate life from the myth I’d written;

I dream sometimes now that I smoke cigarettes again

poison I quit in waking life –

it's the same feeling.