by Kay White Drew
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AI-generated graphic by Shutterstock for The New Verse News. |
Pounded from all directions
by edicts of spite and hate,
words and acts of cruelty
and stupidity, the amygdala,
fear’s hangout in the brain, grovels
on the unstable ground of shifting
demands, screaming for mercy:
I’ll do whatever you want! Just
please make it stop! Meanwhile,
the cerebral cortex, where reason
and discernment reside, frowns
in puzzlement, tries to ask
the relevant question: what
course of action might be
best in these circumstances?
but cannot get a word in edgewise.
Kay White Drew is a retired physician whose poems appear in Bay to Ocean Journal, Pen in Hand, Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, Gargoyle, and New Verse News. She’s also published short stories and several essays, one of which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and a memoir, Stress Test. She lives in Rockville, MD with her husband.
