Panic Attacks

 

They’re like swallowing rust.

The tongue tries to be a shield,

 

but the bed explodes.  The best

bet is avoiding the avalanche

 

of thought by forcing a monk

mind set or—what I do—just

 

jumping off the cliff so I fall

sixty stories into something

 

that never seems to kill me.

Thank God . . . and all else.

 

 

 

Ron Riekki‘s books include U.P.: a novel, The Way North: Collected Upper Peninsula New Works (2014 Michigan Notable Book), and