It looks dazzling.

Museum-light on borrowed glass.

Warm faces calibrate to “welcome,”

then cool on contact. 

Not my world.

It sounds epic.

Achorus trained to hit the bright notes.

Happy voices braid a net out of air,

ask me to step in. 

Not my world.

I have known sweet things,

like sugar on a pill.

It goes down easy. 

The lesson doesn’t.

Not my world.

Smiles winter over without warning.

No one notices the temperature drop

until my breath fogs the mirror

and I vanish into it.

The glitter was a decoy.

Pretty teeth on a trap.

Applause made a tunnel; I walked it obediently

and arrived at “perform.”

Anglerfish lanterns.

They opened my chest with soft light

and left with the hinges.

I won’t call it home.

I won’t call it hate.

Just a room where the exit wears pearls

and the floor remembers every fall.

Not my world.

I’ll keep walking.

Until the map stops being a rumor

and a door recognizes my hand.

I’ll find another.