Fever at Night (Rachel Jackson- Lafayette, LA)

I woke last night
Tense as a tightrope
Shoulders crushing me
Neck pushing up into my jaw
Molars chattering

I tugged myself from bed
And into the bathroom.

Breath.
Breath again.
Now another.

I bent down
To drink water
From the bathroom sink
And looked up into the mirror
Two wet eyes gazed back.
Two wet, wet eyes.

No nightmare had I awoken from
None that I recalled
But those two huge, wet eyes
Looked as if they had just been crying.