by Rebecca Leet
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| Source: We Do Geek |
My head sinks into the pillow
and fear floats forward
like a ghoul set to stalk my dreams
so easy to keep ghosts
tautly moored when sun shines,
before night ingests hope.
I worry past the present pandemic
past the wild, sad souls ensnared
by visions of prurient perfidies
to a time closer than we dare declare
when swelling seas, infernos of forests,
acres of arid, fallow farmlands
push civilization to survival of the fittest
and my newborn grandchild, one day,
must claw over others or succumb.
Then morning comes and as I sip tea
news reports speak of children suffocating
from poison gas in Syria girls kidnapped
by Boko Haram in Nigeria a boy killed
in a random shooting five miles away.
And I realize my fear, today, is a luxury.
Rebecca Leet lives a stone's throw from Washington, DC. Her collection Living with the Doors Wide Open was published in 2018.