Where Is Your Evidence? Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Why are you slapping me around like this?

'I want to ensure you are awake.'

Would I not be talking to you,
If I was not awake?

'Hmmm...
You do have a point.
One I will take into consideration...
After I have satisfied myself.
It has taken me a long time to get here!
Do you have any idea,
As to how long I've been doing this? '

What difference does that make?
Stop doing it.
I am...
I am awake!
Stop.
I insist you stop this!

'I can't!
How do I know I am not hallucinating?
And you are pretending to be conscious?
I don't want to give up...
To then discover,
I have lost you...
With a slipping back into a darkened hole!
Gone forever.
Never to come out of a coma.

Where is your evidence?
Prove to me...
You have not driven me into insanity! '

Well...I...

'Shuddup.'