(revised)

My therapist
(everyone I listen to)
said she
(is shrinking my head)
is leaving.
It's interesting:
(I used to say I'm afraid)
the world's so daunting
(I was thumping)
anxious
(holding my breath)
fearful
(and hated)
anything that moved to change
or didn't
made me paralyzed
(a broken-winged thing in ice)
cubed I
would be
squashed by if onlys
should haves
(the pull on my wings so cruel
I stayed in bed)
a weak
thing
(with no pills)
helped me
(let me fly)
my need
(from a deadly inability to)
a great I am
(see)
how great I am
(me)
And not once did you
shrink
(my head).


Roxanne McDonald

Roxanne McDonald
is a prize-winning author, poet and Associate Professor of English listed in Who's Who of American Teachers. Her goals are to continue helping students, to write her way out of her barking dogs and booming music neighborhood and to one day be the answer to a game show question, for, as she believes, writing is 50% ego, 50% sense of humor%, and 50% grit.