in the center

There's a crystalline pain in the center of my chest. Sharp and thin and hard. A high shrieking note that never tires, never takes a breath.

It's been there for decades. Even before I met you. When there was a tear in the universe, and I struggled to make sense of the distortion. 

And somehow, because of you, that rending grew, and hardened in me - so that when I touch it now, it pulls me in, collapsing my dimensions into that scream, so that I'm frozen in a universe of unbearable anguish.  

Last night, I dreamed of you again. And, in my dream, you were kind. And you remembered. 

And, in that moment, and for that time, the pain eased.