A gilded cage, clipped wings, a weight, breath short, metallic fear

shaking, sweating, the bitter putrid taste of vomit.

                Anxiety.

A key in lock, a flutter of wings, breathless, soaring, sweet release

catharsis, floating, flying, lost in motion.

                 Dance.

Shaking hands, creeping paralysis, frigid blood, 

Vertigo punches in like a coat hanger abortion

a hand constricts the trachea, crushing the windpipe

             Anxiety

light laughter, carefree running, summer breezes

warmth spreading over the body, hope sweeping in

              My son

teeth chattering, blackness rolling in, white bones crackling,

muscles tensing, breath gone, breath gone, breath gone

                      Anxiety

weightless, water cleansing, rushing, focus streaming,

steel filling in bones, strength flowing in veins,

a drumming march, a cadence of heartbeats

          Army

a noose, a knife, a gun

around my neck

to my wrist

against my temple

sick

sick

sick

sick

Anxiety.

 

Bleeding poison, releasing venom, an antioxidant, an antidote,

a cure

           writing.

Anxiety. Anxiety. Anxiety. Shaking down to the core, 

but then...

shedding darkness, shedding fear, shedding the snakeskin

metamorphasis, evolution, a revolution

 of spirit

gold refined, thrown into fire, purities removed,

 

my mind, my thoughts, my life,

I am. I am. I think. I think.

I am. I am.

Surviving anxiety.

 

 

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