Fear

From the moment we spew from the womb into a senseless world to the instant death dances us into endless night, fear is the shadow that nips at our heels. Fear paints storm clouds on a sunny day. Fear transforms good intentions into ugly consequences. Fear blinds us to our smallness, our helplessness. We cannot see that every one of us is the same, struggling to rise from our beds, our backs bent under the burden of our past, tripping over the uncertainty of what will greet us when we walk out the door. 

inspired by Margaret Walker's "The Struggle Staggers Us"

https://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/poems/walker/the_struggle_staggers_us.php 

published in Contemplate