Pressure by Bogdan Dragos

she slept with a small,

thin Batman plushie

between her

breasts

and often woke up

with it

soaked in sweat

The poor Batman looked

diseased,

crushed,

and suicidal.

Clearly he was facing a

villain he could

not hope to defeat

It was the dreams

that made her

sweat so

There was much pressure

in her dreams

The last one

was about her lower jaw

pressing against the upper

one

until the teeth came out

of their socket, all of them,

and she swirled them

around her mouth

like tic-tacs

and eventually swallowed them

one by one

until she choked

In another dream

she pressed

her thumbs against her

temples

until they went in with

a crunchy sound followed

by complete silence

and pain

but the worst dreams

were those in

which she applied pressure

to others

and not to herself

There was a lot of

pressure