pandora’s box
the danger of living
in a burning world,
is that worry is a constant companion.
scarcely needing to be beckoned,
before it sidles up,
goading my steady heartbeat
into erratic pounding,
making the blood echo
in the curves of my ear.
all it takes is a hint,
one missed call,
a flash of a headline,
and my brain is off,
running through mazes
of possibilities,
each filled with more terrible
demons than the last.
sphinxes with razor-sharp teeth
that smile before
offering riddles that never end well,
gryffins that shred my confidence
into tatters — talons a blur.
mocking laughs that remind me
of just how many things there
are that can go wrong,
cliffs to fall off of,
quicksand to be sucked into,
human-made terrors that dance with death.
i yearn to protect those i love,
but danger is omnipresent,
and my mortal body fails me,
for i cannot be everywhere.
so i send up quiet prayers
to higher powers that be,
the constant threat of disaster
a heavy burden to bear,
and in the barest of breaths
between debilitating fear,
i glimpse the shadow of hope.