after Eduardo C. Corral and Diane Seuss
Anxiety is a funnel, a black hole.
Rock, paper, scissors, anxiety.
Handle anxiety with gloves or forceps.
Anxiety is a scalene triangle; it has no equal sides.
Friends left behind whisper anxiety.
I’m at the corner of Anxiety and Main.
An odd number plus an even number equals anxiety.
Anxiety can be played with a cheap needle on an old phonograph.
An elephant never forgets anxiety.
Anxiety is the mother of apple cider vinegar and of pearl.
Billie Jean King says anxiety is a privilege.
Anxiety wears nothing but its shell.
There is always a seat in the house for anxiety.
I cover anxiety with an old blanket.
Expat New Yorker James Penha (he/him) has lived for the past three decades in Indonesia. Nominated for Pushcart Prizes in fiction and poetry, his work is widely published in journals and anthologies. His newest chapbook of poems, American Daguerreotypes, is available for Kindle. His essays have appeared in The New York Daily News and The New York Times. Penha edits The New Verse News, an online journal of current-events poetry.
Latest posts by James Penha (see all)
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