Awake  
at 4:08am
in a sweat
peer around to find

everything 
the same
but entirely different
fully familiar, fully foreign

dawn 
only illuminates
the strange sameness
house, but not home

oxygen
tar thick 
each pregnant breath
harder than the last

gravity
force fortified 
bones become osmium
flesh hangs like fruit  

mirrors
now microscopes
magnify every flaw
at a cellular level

language
garbled gibberish
each unintelligible word 
wrapped tight in cellophane 

inhabitants
seemingly human 
look through me
ambivalent to my presence 

alone
craving connection
desperate but defiant
refusing to reach first

somehow
still surviving
after 1,095 days
on this inhospitable planet

dreaming
every hour
of my return
to the brilliant before.