Dark Stars (poetry)

Red Dragonfly Press
2017
53 pages
$12

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FEAR ITSELF

  “…the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—
     nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror…

                                    FDR, inaugural address, 1933

Fear of your neighbor, who prays a different way
his face a different color. You cannot comprehend
his language. We put up a fence to keep the rabbits
out, the neighbor kids from the apple trees
but a high fence with shards of glass to keep
“The Other” in their place? And such a fence
that runs from sea to shining sea, from
Checkpoint Charley to Checkpoint Zebulon?
Fear that your model of Jetski will not keep pace
with the Jones’s. Fear that your hairstyle, your hemline
will not be de rigueur. Seal the attic, bats might get in
exterminate the bugs, zap the flies, switch the DNA
of the mosquitos. Put the lepers in a valley
with Ben Hur’s mother and sister. Fear of mice,
open spaces, tight spaces, crowds, failure, success,
immigrants, ptarmigans, grizzlies, of flying,
of mushrooms, of trees, of spiders, snakes,
the dark, dirt, germs, hermeneutics, nightmares
daymares, mares, invasive plants, invasive fish,
invasive leprechauns, identity theft, two left feet,
encryption, penetration, nuclear annihilation
all the icecaps gone, kaput. Just look in the mirror
if you really want to get a fix on what to fear.

 

Painting by Lisa Nankivil for "Obsidian Point" Book Cover

Photos of painting, books and other works by Kathy Greden

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