Panic is the prompt of the day over at Writer’s Digest, and I’m feeling it a little now, as I’ve bit off more poetic pie than I can chew this weekend. I’m committed to these daily prompts, but also signed up for CV2 Magazine’s 2-Day poem contest, and a beading workshop this afternoon, and have to get my kids to dance and sportball too, then have to work tonight. How many hours do I think there are in a day? But sometimes the pressure, and even the panic, are what I need to get moving. I decided to mix the panic prompt with NaPoWriMo’s call for a poem with repetition, so here it goes:

The Big Fall

 

It spreads faster than lice in a preschool,

soon we’re  trembling, sweating,

holding our hands to our chests

to slow the galloping hearts.

Don’t panic, don’t panic, relax, relax.

But it’s not as simple as that

when we’re stuck in fight, flight or freeze,

that feeling in our lungs,

like we forgot how to breathe.

Don’t panic, don’t panic, relax, relax.

Is the room on a tilt? Whipping round

like a top, can we make it stop? Ask

to get off? If we hold hands will it slow,

bring the blood back? Halt the attack?

Don’t panic, don’t panic, relax, relax.

Is this really it? The poets, they’re liars,

crazy romantics, but I need you to kiss me,

‘cuz if we’re both going mad, loopy

and falling, we’ve gotta go together.

 

Maybe falling in love isn’t the usual kind of panic, but I think many of the symptoms are the same. I’m also not sure if today’s Alberta poem is a love poem, but I see that when I look at it. Check out  the beautiful “For Kristen” by Calgary visual poet derek beaulieu.