Dear Fear

Dear Fear,

I see You there-

grinning up at me maliciously

black eyes glinting malevolently.

Black like midnight,

draping over your wispy body

welling fog barely fits under a cloak.

Yellowing, pointed teeth

quivering

waiting to tear,

      puncture,

      Maim.

A flash of scarlet.

Floating freely between various forms-

a white, misty fog in the darkness,

a boggart in the wizarding world

imitating, mocking,

shrieking laughter.

A shrill scream in the dark,

piercing shadows

the last emaciated breath of a pale figure

oblivion, darkness, infinity, then-

Nothing.

Of all your

Roots

clinging to arid soil

jutting rocks

---------

uncertainty, ignorance-

Reign far above all else.

Malformation, disease

gentle creeping of cancerous bodies

like hornets traveling in a flock,

but with a tick’s numbing bite.

You slink up to a person unaware

infesting, infecting, sickening

You are cancer’s best friend,

and slow contributor to death.

You crawl in the halls

where death lurks.

Families congregate,

last moments shared and remembered

You take from them the last living happiness.

Fear,

You are within and without.

Purell

gel, cool on my hands

Stinging-

purifying sensation of sickness.

You are ivy

a small sprig of doubt left unguarded

growing slowly at first, then with startling rapidity,

crawling through a dark forest

slowly creeping over a tree until it has disappeared from view.

Are You... me?

Am I….afraid?

You skulk through the chambers of my heart

gleaming red and gruesome pink

through aortas, ventricles

pumped through my arteries,

overtaking my body

returned through greenish blue veins

recycling.

From my heart to my lungs

great rasping shudders

issuing from the sinewy depths

through my own mouth-

though my breath should not belong to You.

Fear,

I am not You

I am not a tree for You to shroud

with your ivy.

My heart thuds

my hands shake,

but I rise.

Your cloak is flung off,

your eyes lose their gleam,

my hands steady

my breathing slows

Soul reassured.

Your body plummets

to infinity

Wispy arms and legs unfurl like smoke

down a tapering tunnel of darkness

getting smaller and smaller,

never quite gone.

Fear-

you are not welcome here.

Love, Hope, Confidence, Certainty

will tear your flesh from those old, grey bones

and that smile will never return to your lips.

Farewell, Fear

No longer yours,

    Rose Melville.