The year was ending & I had been stuck in a dream loop of eggplant & zucchini, betrayal, book characters, seeing the mayor in a penguin suit, swimming pools appearing in the center of rooms, losing teeth & growing extra face-parts. That dream where you find extra rooms in your house. I felt elated one night & fearful the next. Then suddenly my dreams became stiff. Nothing could make them come alive again. Maybe I had read too many sad stories & my mind longed to the fake-pretend-past of when I thought how boring the life ahead of me seemed. I went looking for trouble & now I was too late. The waking hours were the labyrinth. The night was calm and peaceful. I’d ask in my dreams: How can I fix it? And the answer would always be plain, I’d be incredulous why I didn't think of it before. The last night of the year, I dreamt we traveled by horseback to a cave, it was unmagical & brown, no dust and no lore, we met a serpent. He took our tongues in exchange for us staying together forever. I got my wish and gave up my tongue, my voice, my language-soul. When I woke I pressed my tongue on the roof of my mouth, widened it luxuriously around my molars & wept with relief.