Tag: Everyday Fears

And now the blogger’s terror:
To have nothing left to say
That anyone would want to read,
Or ought to, anyway

Or fear you might have passed that point
A dozen posts ago:
For boring people always seem
To be the last
To know

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[Note – for those who don’t recognize such things, the silver-black item on the left of the photo is what was once called a “landline” telephone. – Owen]

So many of our fears are trivial,

But daily they are there, like loyal friends;

Our worry that some small thing on our person

Will be the thing that distracts

And offends

To be fair, many really have no fear

Of ever doing this, for they make sure

To point out their opponent’s always wrong;

All their opinions, just so much manure

 

But sometimes, maybe, there’s a sneaking fear

That our opponents, by some random law,

Just might right about some little thing:

We dwell on this a moment, then say

Nah

To avoid these things:

We’ll drink too much

We’ll date the wrong people
We’ll marry the wrong people
Have kids with the wrong people

Stay way too long where we’re not wanted
Stay too long with people we don’t want to be with

Take risks to our jobs
Our health
Our relationships
Our honor

Everywhere I look
The twin fears
Of boredom
And loneliness
Dominate our actions

And yet

To hear activists talk
It’s all greed

To hear moralists talk
It’s all lust

But these two fears
Of boredom and loneliness
Account for more otherwise unaccountable things
Than all the greed and lust in the world
Combined

To be rejected is, I think,

A very common fear:

To be discarded by our friends,

Or others we hold dear

 

But there’s a type that’s worst of all,

To find ourselves reviled,

Dismissively rejected by

Our blood

Our hearts

Our child

I’ve never seen a vampire,
A zombie or a ghost;
I have no fears of them, although,
I have more fears than most

To make this Halloween, therefore,
Stand out from other years:
I thought I’d catalog, instead,
Our normal, daily fears

The things that cause us angst, and make us doubt:
For fear is what this day is all about…

In three hours’ time, this room will fill;
He’ll take his place upon the stage —

He’s full of nervous energy,
And vague fears that are hard to gage

But all end in embarrassment;
This worry fills him to the brim —

A boring conference, we might say:
But it’s not that
To him