Poem: Fever Delirium

My child wakes up screaming
scrambling across the futon
a child who always lives happily
screams three times
they are so genuinely terrified that I start to feel scared too
a night of 39.9 degrees

fleeing from the bedroom where the "strange person" is
to the bright living room
waking up trembling and saying "scary" over and over
what my child is seeing
I want to know, yet I don't want to know...
in a movie I saw long ago
when a brother connected with his deranged sister
phantom rain began to fall in his sky too

"There's nothing there"
"Mommy saw scary things when I had a fever too, long ago"
"But they weren't really there"
"It's okay, there's nothing to be afraid of"

I can say that only because
I cannot see his hallucinations

I hold him and pat his back
singing a hymn whose lyrics I've mostly forgotten
bringing his reality
closer to my own