the dust motes dance in the morning light now that im home all the time and sometimes i just watch them for hours its like they have a purpose a little sparkle for a second then they drift away its funny isnt it how you spend your whole life being a thing a name a title and then suddenly you're just not anymore i used to have meetings i used to have reports i used to have people waiting for my opinion and now the biggest decision of my day is usually what to make for lunch for myself i mean the kids are grown the husband is still working i just sit here sometimes and it feels like the walls are getting closer like the air is getting thinner like im shrinking you know like those old sweaters that just keep getting smaller in the wash until they're nothing i keep thinking about all those years when the alarm clock was a part of me and now its just an object on the nightstand a relic of another life and i try to remember what it felt like to be important to be needed in that way and its like trying to grasp smoke it just slips right through my fingers anyone else feel this way like you just walked off the stage and forgot your lines and now youre just standing there in the dark after the applause has died down — and you dont even know who you are without the spotlight on you anymore