we're all aware
we are in a simulation
while in the dream
we take a drug
J and I are running
from a group
that has been tagged
to kill us
there is a leader
of our group
helicopter assassins
in a strange
playscape
an arena
pick up trucks
with machine guns
hunters coming after us
at one point
J and I realize
we are in a game
our squad leader is shot
he needs tiny bones
to stay alive
to ingest
I run to where he is
find tiny mouse vertebrae
in his hand
I take them away
from him and put them in my mouth
they are salty
but suddenly
I can see the truth
about the reality
it's a simulation
a deadly simulation
it's a consensual dream
where you can really die
J doesn't know
I'm trying to find her
to tell her it's not a play
I'm hiding in tall grass
the other team is hunting me
a kid sets up a machine gun
in front of me
I'm frozen in the grass
a sitting duck
he's firing at someone next to me
the gun's about 10 feet away
then someone shoots him
in the head... J?
I'm up on a ridge
can see all the action unfolding
but then notice crowds
of dancing happy people
who have taken a drug
that wakes them up
out of the warlike simulation
you just have to die
and you are free
some of them are trying to get shot
to no longer run
or be full of fear
I wonder if my awakening
from eating the tiny bones
was the real awakening
if J already figured it out
the hunter soldiers
are still shooting people
I am still hiding
reluctant to believe
that death in the dream
is liberation
