Nightmare

when we fall asleep, the blankets swaddle our bodies into a single form, like cotton candy around a swirled paper tube. together, we are a multi-limb monstrosity. we are happy. but the sweat leaks out from our shoulders, our stomachs, and the soles of our feet. droplet by droplet, we unravel. you are the water and i am the vinegar and slowly we slip away from each other, eyelids flickering with dreams we won't recall. when we wake, we scrabble across the emptiness and clutch each other to our chests. we grasp and clutch and kiss and murmur and hold and clasp and clutch and promise to never let go.