WORRIED
When I’m worried I feel like I’m in a hole, a hole with no escape.
Other people are so much different to me.
Red shows up on my ears.
Ropes tangle my brain like a bird’s nest.
I just wish this wouldn’t happen.
Everything is terrible when I get nervous.
Don’t try to make me feel better. It’s no use.
—from 2018 Rattle Young Poets Anthology