Everlasting

 

Anxiety follows me everywhere—

the ever-vigilant Grim Reaper, 

dormant

  waiting

    anticipating

scattering traps along my path;

calculating the trip, the fall–

  Yet, I forestall...

The garrote tightens ’round my heart

strangulates, asphyxiates

it fades and withers in the dark.

Poe’s crow screeches “Nevermore”

while phantoms from a lifetime passed

 are ever harder to ignore.

The cards are read, the die's been cast,

 nothing sacred ever lasts

© Ginny Brannan 2023