Things We’re all Scared Of (Abecedarian poem) by Theo Scoblic

All people are scared of these things, I know this to be true

Breaking. The idea that one day we will crumble apart from within and die.

Carnage, it’s what drives us and we know it yet we fear it, we

Dance in bloodshed and say the gore is what scares us and not our joy.

Enemies are third, we all have, we all know them, but we will never, ever conquer them,

Failing ourselves in the process.

Gratitude, because “why am I reliant, I can’t be reliant what is going on, this is

Hell.”

I’ve been examining our fears because I had hope but realized we are all

Just

Keeping secrets and telling

Lies

Making ourselves vulnerable and weak, because we are our own doom.

Next

Of course is

Penitentiary: the idea that someone will see ourselves for what we really are and punish us,

Quickly hurting us, because we are monsters.

Rationality is another, because if things were logical we would be happy but also unnecessary,

Stopping our need for existence in this cosmic ecosystem.

Terrifying are these fears and

Unless

Violence has finally consumed us and taken away our humanity

We all have them, again, unless we are no longer human, we might be our own

Xenophobia

Yelling for the end, yelling for the alphabet’sZ