Foundry
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anxiety attack while driving

remember                    hands on the
wheel               keep breathing even if
it’s just the quick and shallow  
think about sound    the music
no   the music is too much       think about
the engine’s uneven mumble
the clicking turn signal            metro-
nome without a song
 
you could pull over
to wait out the beehive bleeding
inside your skin except that
the panic in part is because
you’re running late and  
you hate being so late   unable
to be counted on again
 
*
 
if you crash it’s all over
whether it’s on purpose
or caused by the panic
 
you will get to point b
or you won’t and there
are many things you can’t
accept but this you accept
because you must
 
*
 
what else is there to do but wait
for the ground to open and
swallow you like a sarlacc?
 
there will be no lonely there inside the sharp-toothed pit of a beast
among the digesting bones of others also fallen    and in all this  
the blaring white    all your dark   even a thousand years
is temporary   a plummeting plane maybe able
to make the emergency landing   maybe not  
but either way the sky-torpedo filled
with people can’t keep
falling forever
Picture
Fédèle Azari. Airplane, viewed from above looking down, 1914-1929. Gelatin silver print. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Marlin M. Jenkins was born and raised in Detroit and studied poetry in University of Michigan’s MFA program. His writings have been given homes by The Collagist, Four Way Review, The Journal, and Bennington Review, among others. He is an editor for HEArt Online, and you can find him on Twitter @Marlin_Poet.
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  • Home
  • About
    • Masthead
  • Archive
    • Issue One
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    • Issue Three
    • Issue Four
    • Issue Five
    • Issue Six
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    • Issue Eight
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    • Issue Ten
    • Issue Eleven
    • Issue Twelve
    • Issue Thirteen
    • Issue Fourteen
    • Issue Fifteen
  • Guidelines