Allegory

A poem about fear, and bears, and worry

There’s an election coming up in the U.S. You may have heard about it. I wrote to a friend early this week, “Trying to stay positive as we careen toward this election. It's just that the potential bad outcome is so very, very bad. It feels so dire.”

I have started holding the news at a distance. I still read the local paper every morning. (The actual “paper” version of the paper. I am a dinosaur.) My new car’s radio works better than the old one did, so I’m back to listening to NPR as I tackle my errands. But a while back I started consciously reining in my engagement with online news, figuring that if I matched my emotional involvement, as best I could, to the extent to which I might effect some change, that maybe I’d come out even, not end up with great pile of anxiety that I had no use for.

So here’s a poem for this season of worry. Maybe it will help. Or maybe it will just distract you from the news for a moment. That may be the best we can all do for a while.

---

Allegory

Fear browses at the edge 
of my mind like the bear 
that waited nearby
when we camped out West

All the signs shouting at us 
to beware, to wear bells,
to sing as we hiked,
to hang food in a tree,
and not sleep in the clothes
we wore while cooking

And we slept, just barely,
awake to every rustle
every crack in the underbrush,
haunted and certain 
that at any moment
a giant clawed paw 
would slash through the side 
of our tent, a toothy maw
would close upon us

So now does fear lurk
around the perimeter,
invited close by dire warnings
and predictions of doom

All is lost, really,
and we are just waiting for 
the paw, the claws, the teeth

I sleep in my bed, not a tent
on the edge of a ridge
Yet I am precariously perched,
the signs telling of dangers
to come, my phone nearby
ready to jolt me awake 
with terrible news

We never saw a bear
in all those months
Yet that bear lived in our
minds like truth

Perhaps there is much to fear
but like the bear, I wonder if
our vigilance keeps it at bay
or simply keeps us in thrall

We might be better
to hang the food 
and change our clothes 
and then sleep in peace,
knowing what is ours to control
and what belongs to the bear

---

Thanks for reading, everyone!