Family
disturbs my worrying and fretting
over what I can’t control.
Impatient, defensive
hyper logical commentary
highlight the fact that
there’s not shit else we can do.

However
bad news, too much cop TV
and a predisposition
toward intense panic attacks
speak loudest to me.

All the strong, controlled blustering
and feigned aloofness
does nothing to me
to allay my fears for one in trouble.
Instead it reveals
they’re fearful as me
only fully unwilling to admit it.

Mine may not be the best
course of action for dealing either,
accepting my anguish and my hope
for difficulties to be righted.

But
I’d rather be in my shoes
if the situation fell apart
and something much harder
arose to be dealt with.

And now
after facing my fears
in the time they came
I can fully embrace my joyful relief
that everything worked out quietly.

© 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers