Feel it, when a wave

spooks a present state of mind,

unexpected, often uninvited,

yet enough resilience to freeze a moment.

We walk like this when we wish to show

a safer side, a confident bit of posturing.

We smile when the need does arise;

it surely does speak to our manner.

We question everything in our head,

any notion, however idle, comes alive

We regret that time we hadn’t really thought

about the consequence, we’d forgotten that day.

We choose music, talk show, letters, even newsstand

‘literature’ to appease the moment our mind shifts.

We discover a new distraction in a tender moment,

and suddenly that one time before has left the room.

Anxiety speaks aloud far too often to be ignored,

we know, we weather the storm, we give in

to the long entrails of furious emotion standing

upon an aching heart, an explosive mind, our eyes.

We’d rather dress ourselves to the nines and ignore

any self-taught criticism, rather than play our demise.

Since when we cowered in the corner as a young child

we have discovered safeguards in place, all the time.

Yet, that memory still lingers, still waits to chime

in.