The Panic of Non-Action - a Poem for Day Eight of PAD

It’s been a busy day and here I am, trying not to panic that I have only a little over an hour to write my poem. Ah, well, fun with the family was worth it!

Here is the prompt for day eight:

For today’s prompt, write a panic poem. There are any number of things a person can panic about, including severe weather, military invasions, or what to wear to an event. And while some may be more life or death than others, that feeling of panic is just as real for a person who has to get up and speak in front of a crowd of smiling strangers as it is for a person hiding in the basement of their house as a tornado approaches.

If You Look Carefully, You Can See Him Smile

The Panic of Non-Action

Perhaps you’ll plant
something lovely
in your life today
instead of going about
useless routines
like tracing Orion’s Belt
in those dot-to-dot
age spots
on the back of your hand.

Perhaps instead of wondering
what life had been like
if you’d been born
someone else,
you’ll trundle out your door,
say hello to a stranger,
pluck a leaf from desert
scrub oak, be amazed
how anything
can stay alive in Death
Valley.

Perhaps instead of scratching out
each day you have left,
you’ll spend tomorrow
in awe, marveling
at things like the forked tail
and the rapid wing
beats of Lucifer’s
Hummingbird, decide
if this is your end,
it isn’t so bad.

Still, perhaps you’ll stay grafted
to your seat, rock your life
using only those two
dog-eared feet, panic
at all the things
you didn’t have the nerve
to get up and do. 

***