This is the second attempt on a collaboration I participated in on Anxiety / Release. This one didn't make the cut, but I am posting all the poems I wrote as part of the journey. It was dark times in my head as I wrote this, and travelled the path to the final piece. I hope you enjoy this, or at the very least, appreciate the emotion and passion that went into it.

Feelings persist,
gnawing at my core,
burrowing
inch by bloody inch
through the fabric of
wet, clammy skin.

Maybe I should remain
alone...

What if I am not
good enough?

Deep breath…

you can do this
is what I am told
by sadism buried inside my
troubled mind.

Don't worry...everyone will
(laugh at you)
think you're wonderful.

One step at a time,
time keeps pace with
wildly jumbled thoughts
of inadequacy.

Convincing myself I can
leave my hole,
sweating to
over-worked imagination,
it is only a bottle
that allows me to sail away
on the little ship
contained within.