A Masquerade

Anxiety leaps and foams into white water, churning over rocks and branches, 

submerged and hidden from view, no direction but to escape.

Anxiety, like a trickster, 

seems to sparkle with energy

then dips and dives into the murk below disguising itself as passion gone awry

Anxiety coils itself tightly

oozing its way from deep inside

scraping nerve endings raw

masquerading as impending doom or death

Anxiety shaken loose

with a passion to be free

settles reluctantly into calm waters

washing away its sticky mask of fear.

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; 

the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”

~ Plato