Whether it’s to the clangs of your alarm
at 5:30 in the morning, when the sun’s rays
have barely swum through the watery darkness
to seep into the edge of your frozen bedside---
your heart stopped like a paralysis with that alarm---
whether it’s after self-contemplation in the corner
of a locked basement, dad’s Bourbon whiskey
still clutched between two shaking hands;
whether it’s from a nightmare, car accident, prayer
unexpected kiss in the front yard of your home,
thawed grass and solid earth beneath your feet

we have to wake up sometime
to reality, harsh gray after your dreamy life
or the most beautiful kaleidoscope light
you have seen since eternities of hell.
It depends on how you view it.
But it’s the same reality.