Anxious and unafraid
As a child,
Many a night I awoke
With a fast-beating heart
Wrenched from
The dream that seemed
More real
Than the friendly darkness
Of my bedroom
Just a bad dream
I thought
Just a bad dream
Still, I called
For my mother
To tell me what
I already knew
Now I know
Even more
About dreams
They’re neither good nor bad
My thinking makes them so
A dream to escape
A nightmare to escape
Change the word and
I change the story
My dreams of anxiety
Where nothing would go right
Aren’t just past-tense
Still, I dream
Times still I wake
Wrenched from
The vivid lights of neon dreams
Their fast-fading remnants
Lighting a less familiar room
It was just a bad dream
These words I think
To myself
And then
The words
That I keep
To myself
As I awaken further
Into the somnambulance of
Learning to live
Learning to be
Anxious and unafraid
