Experiment

Experiment

Release one of your anxieties. Try.
Lift up from it slowly, as you would pry

cold fingers from a steering wheel.
Are you willing to experiment, to feel

a practiced fear floating like smoke
away from you. We get nervous, provoke

in ourselves the jitters, the shakes.
We wince at the noise a siren makes,

avoid speaking to an entire room
of people we have not met, consume

ourselves with concerns over pets,
traffic, kids, money. The body digests

muscle if it is worked and not fed.
Anxiety strengthens anxiety. Instead

of anticipating fear, could we carve
away what eats at us, allow it to starve.