he said
“pain is just an illusion”

i shook my head
“pain is the only proof of existence. the only thing we know is real”

in the absurdity
of day to day
i find as much comfort
in the headache
leaving me blind
in one eye
than i do to any
piebald dreams
as flimsy as
tissue paper hearts
in the rain

everything we perceive
is an illusion
fed upside down
into a swarm of chemicals
pain keeps us tethered
to impossible
rotating molten core
packed with raging
continental drifts
slowly dying from
the insects it birthed
as the sun expands
to one day consume
the solar system