it was always the same
it never changed
that moment she’d feel herself floating
whenever the bad things happened again

her mind told her it was temporary
such things always were
but 40 years after it happened
she realized that her mind simply lied to her

for what else could it tell her,
unable to help any other way?
for when those bad things happened again and again,
there was nothing she – or her mind – could do to get away