Anxiety was a daily reality for me for most of my life. The poem below describes what happened in me and how I tried to fight it. My anxiety has decreased dramatically after years of reclaiming my agency through therapy, boundary setting, exercise, accountability...
Barriers
I am my own entity
I won’t let the world swallow me
Centre to the core, find my balance
The shadowy fingers of lack of sleep
are invading my brain, smothering my defenses
The grey blurry figure whispers in my ears
that all is hopeless and that I won’t do
My eyes widen with fear
trying to identify the threat
The ghost slyly smiles:
it’s hiding between my eyes and my brain
undetected, it can pursue its slow conquering work
getting into every fold of my brain
following the path of the nerves
controlling my body, unaware of the hijack
But I know that old nemesis
I know its ways and manners
It has occupied my body often enough
Centre to the core, find my balance
There is no threat, there is no ghost
Jan 28
Jan 28, 2026 at 6:39 AM UTC
Anxiety was a daily reality for me for most of my life. The poem below describes what happened in me and how I tried to fight it. My anxiety has decreased dramatically after years of reclaiming my agency through therapy, boundary setting, exercise, accountability...
Barriers
I am my own entity
I won’t let the world swallow me
Centre to the core, find my balance
The shadowy fingers of lack of sleep
are invading my brain, smothering my defenses
The grey blurry figure whispers in my ears
that all is hopeless and that I won’t do
My eyes widen with fear
trying to identify the threat
The ghost slyly smiles:
it’s hiding between my eyes and my brain
undetected, it can pursue its slow conquering work
getting into every fold of my brain
following the path of the nerves
controlling my body, unaware of the hijack
But I know that old nemesis
I know its ways and manners
It has occupied my body often enough
Centre to the core, find my balance
There is no threat, there is no ghost
This is a poem on anxiety and lack of boundaries. This is another one on this theme: https://aliciasand.wixsite.com/alicia/poems/anguish