Anxiety by Andi Talbot

(Beir Bua’s Pushcart Nominations 2021)

I shake hands
with hands that shake
with my anxieties
and he just smiles
and stares a hole
straight through me

before returning
to pacing the corners
of my mind
now
infected with his antics

on a more than regular basis
he starts by
shaping my day before I wake
and closes us out
by twisting my dreams before I sleep

there’s no escaping
no relief
from this living
breathing nightmare

Author Bio:

Andi Talbot is a writer and performance poet from Newcastle, England. They have released two chapbooks, “Burn Before Reading” (2019) and “Old Wounds // New Skin” (2020), both via Analog Submission Press. They are currently working on their debut poetry collection. 

Read the rest of issue one here.