Tricky Dancer
Poem by Cher Alex
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Fear is a tricky dancer
manifesting as the rhythm of the inter-nation.
It is the ultimate interloper of our times.
Sometimes, it is evidenced by the vexatious sounds of
frantic squirrels trapped within
the plaster of my thin bedroom walls on dank wintry nights,
brown, bewildered, tent-making bats,
rabidly stranded in my stuffy ceiling
or in the wanton gaze of the
dusty, black crows which fall unwittingly,
time after time
down the brick-red chimney of my childhood home
like wretched, drunken sailors
mumbling, stumbling, struggling to feel the ground
beneath shaky feet.
I hear it in the high-pitched voice of
the high-maintenance, light complected woman
occupying a busy street.
You know, the one who can’t seem to maintain eye contact with me
for more than four or five seconds
without suppressing a giggle or a frown.
I smell it in the unbecoming scent of
unwashed bodies wafting insidiously
among sad, disoriented people.
I feel it in the pit of my upset stomach
following the taste of unsolicited proposals
from ruthlessly powerful energy vampires
while in the panicked throes of
hypervigilance
around suspected potential shooters.
All the while, the futility of
life in suspension abounds
within the garishly colored houseless camps
as nameless victims secure eventual homes
on the hangman’s scroll.
A pendulous toll on the tender soul, indeed.
But every once in a purple moon
I transport myself to a place
where I can observe turquoise blue ocean waves swell
like gliding, pirouetting spirits
beneath cloudless skies.
And do you hear my upturned palms?
They make the sweetest sounds
as they graciously receive
this ineffable reprieve.Cheryl Atim Alexander is an Afro-Euro woman primarily of Nigerian, Greek, and British descent. Currently an MFA student, her writing material emanates from lived, professional, and educational experiences. She has been published in Decolonial Passage, Wilderness House Literary Review, and Written Tales Magazine.