Signs You May Have an Anxiety Disorder
You pretend to like a friend’s dog,
its wet breath and sly
repositioning next to, then
onto, your lap. You read
the word love as Iowa. Loss
pocks the surface of your face.
Green mold shames your car
stalled at the raveled edge
of the yard. A vulture flaps
to the street, catches your image
in its cold eye. You touch
your scrap-metal teeth,
sharpen your pencils
with a knife, choose paper,
and take up waiting.
Slices of light slant
into your room like metal
pincers. A metronome
gasps. What you write is
so small no one reads it.
The legible word is regret.
Barbara Daniels’s Talk to the Lioness was published by Casa de Cinco Hermanas Press in 2020. Her poetry has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Mid-American Review, and elsewhere. Barbara Daniels received a 2020 fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
Comentarios