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 She is a new author, previously unpublished, and can be found dreaming about travel, writing fabulous fiction, and basking in the sunshine. 



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On the Bank of the River - Abigail Bauman