#dreamfable

Allergic Reactions and Nudity I wait below the trap door, waiting for my cue.  Part of me is hoping that it will never come because things just are not going my way tonight.  I scratch my arm and dry flakes of skin fall to the dark floor at my bare feet.  The stage hand taps me on the shoulder signaling for me to begin my ascent to the stage.  The rungs of the ladder fell cold on my hot and sweaty hands.  I push the door open above my head and take the stage in silence.  I just know that things will probably go downhill quickly. My skin is red and puffy and the lights overhead are making me even more aware of my scorching fever.  Nevertheless, I begin to dance and the audience seems highly unamused by what they are seeing, but I can’t do anything about that now.  With every twist, jump, turn, and pose I can feel my leotard getting tighter and tighter as the swelling increases exponentially in real time.   All of a sudden, as I fly, I feel a sharp pain around my rib cage.  The leotard is just too tight.  I decide it has to go so I hastily pull it down around my waist, exposing my hive-covered breasts.  I am unperturbed and so is the audience because this is exactly what the piece needed.   My chest bounces as I continue to dance and despite having freed myself from my garments, my limbs and torso feel stretched and stiff, scarlet and bumpy.  It’s getting worse, I can’t move, I’m suffocating, I falling.  I can only see bright shin busters and blank faces through my eyes that are nearly swollen shut.  I collapse under the weight of my now bulbous limbs.  My mind is going dark but I have time for one more thought: “It was the damn fish oil again.”