I walked into the airport with my usual grimace  
Seats colder than my heart when I heard the news
From Ohio to Washington, such a distance
I complained to my parents but their decisions were tightened with screws

People walking, phones ringing
Luggage strolling, my head exploding
This place functions like my worries, they never stop
So rushed, so focused, the ball never drops
No time to stop and hear what I think
You’d have to read an endless book printed in faded ink

People never try to see behind my disguise
My smile dies but mind survives
The struggle to board the plane that would change it all
I wish time could stop, give me time to stall
Out of their hands, the tickets would melt
Along with the ton of ice my heart felt

That’s what I needed right then and there
But I’m sick of this line, “Life isn’t fair”
A dreadful motto I can’t bear to listen to
Or the breathing of this airport
Its well-deserved smothering is well overdue

But they got something running here
Something that can’t be delayed
An intangible eternity
Ignorance perfectly portrayed

When I was a boy I really feared nothing
As a teenager I couldn't have feared less
But as a man when I became a loving father
My life took on all kinds of fearful stress.

You think but worry where your little kids are
You know that they’re at school, at least they were
The horrid thoughts that things might happen to them
Causes panic of the sort we all incur.

But they grow up and they manage to stay in one piece
Then they move away and make lives of their own
Then you get a call to say that one is injured
To the other side of the world you then have flown.

Later still you find your other child is ailing
And you do your best to stay so very calm
While your heart is breaking as you reassure them
This brave person that you once held in your palm.

So yes I fear so many things I never used to
Plus concerns about my body as it grows old
And of course they say we might now live to eighty
But I never did believe all I was told.

But these fears are just the things that keep us careful
It wouldn't do to let them get to rule our lives
For it’s fear of fear that takes you to the limit
It’s the very thing on which the panic thrives.

©JRW2014