November 15, 2022 - “What fear feels like” by Elizabeth Lerman

I check the locks because I have to, and even though they’re right where they should be, and even though the dog is waiting for me at the top of the stairs, where the light is still living, my heart is beating faster now than it was before, and my head feels light in a way I know very well, because it is what fear feels like to me, and it makes me wonder if I will get dizzy in the face of danger, if the blood will drain from my body and brain and I will reach, frantically, for the wrong thing, turn the wrong way then fall, slip and scream, maybe, before waking up in another world.