She sits against the wall,
knees up, hands above her belly button,
trying to breathe in even
breaths, but her mind is making that
difficult.
She grips the card in her sweaty hand
like it is her last remaining hope at
recovery.
She stands, walks to the
drinking fountain, grips
the sides with both hands.
Puts her mouth near the spigot, tries
to drink, but it tastes foreign.
she closes her eyes, so desperate.
She stumbles back to her spot
and closes her eyes. People talk to her
she shakes her head, unable to speak.
Someone leads her to an empty room, and she
crawls underneath a chair, cowers, flinches,
her body tells her there’s danger,
and gets her ready to fight,
like a gladiator on battle day. But there is no
danger, so she’s left there, shaking,
underneath a chair, crying, desperate, scared,
alone. She tries to crawl from
underneath the chair, but her mind decides that
it’s not done punishing her yet, so she
goes back underneath. She tries a second time,
and is halfway out from underneath the chair.
She’s so scared.
She tries a third time, and this time wipes her eyes,
stands up, goes out to join the rest of the group,
who glance at her, say hi, and go back to watching the movie.