Veil

The doll told me to exist. It said, “Hypnotize yourself.” It said time would be transfixed. * Now the optimist sees an oak shiver and a girl whiz by on a bicycle with a sense of pleasurable suspense. She budgets herself with leafy prestidigitation. I too am a segmentalist. * But I’ve dropped more than an armful of groceries or books downstairs into a train station. An acquaintance says she colors her hair so people will help her when this happens. To refute her argument, I must wake up and remember my hair’s already dyed. * As a mentalist, I must suffer lapses then repeat myself in a blind trial. I must write punchlines only I can hear and only after I’ve passed on