Reality Is the Definition of Pain
Issue 15
Abigail Bauman
2022
My eyes are blind
And I can not see.
My hands are bound, my mind
Bound.
My lips...
Claimed.
Taken.
Locked in a moment of passion but not with
Passion—
I digress.
It is pain, I say.
It is pain, I say.
No.
And no...
And no
And no
And no
AND NO
But my lips do not move.
Claimed.
Taken
They walk and they dance and they entwine with my enemy,
Though he does not know he is my enemy.
Is it real? I ask you—is it real
If you do not see me cry?
If you do not see me scream?
If you do not see, or do not want to
See?
But you still smile and laugh and joke and speak to me
As though I can speak to you.
Is it real? I ask you
If I never said no?
-But I did say no, and you did not hear me.
Abigail Bauman is a sophomore Creative Writing, Anthropology, and German Studies triple major at Susquehanna University. She is a new author, previously unpublished, and can be found dreaming about travel, writing fabulous fiction, and basking in the sunshine.