at 3am, you can usually hear sprinklers

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spinning themselves around and releasing water.
you can usually hear
the train and the crickets
and the hot water heater clicking on and off.

but last night i didn’t hear any of those things
because lydia was crying.

a nightmare.

what is it, leanne asked.

still half her body submerged in the dream,
lydia sobs -
you were supposed to not draw it that way.

leanne, it seems drew outside the lines.

and if i didn’t do it out loud,
at least i did it in my own dream:

i laughed.

i laughed because i was so overjoyed
that lydia wasn’t having nightmares
about her mother being sick or bald
or in the hospital
or dead.

i laughed that maybe the thing that lydia
is most afraid of right now in her life
is that someone isn’t drawing
inside the lines.

and as disturbing and perfectionistic as that may be,
it’s still a million times better
than worrying that you’ll be
alone in this world
forever.

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