"panic unto oblivion" by Cindy Hochman

Poetry

Photo by Windah Limbai on Unsplash

panic unto oblivion

wandering into the gray zone

this bottomless well of unwellness

not quite rayless or stygian,

but you know it wants to head in that direction

one iota better than lassitude or languish

but on its way to inertia

you know a lot of things about it

(but the explanation gets tangled in your tongue)

and you know what it wants to do

(lead you in that direction)

and when it rages like a recalcitrant child

you must let it have its way

until the huff & hissy passes

(I’m warning you

get back in your cage, back in your cage!)

though you know full well

that it will head in that direction again

by 8:00 tonight

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Cindy Hochman is the founder of “100 Proof Copyediting Services,” the editor emerita of the long-running poetry journal First Literary Review-East, and the author of Telling You Everything (Unleash Press, 2022). Her newest book, I Am the Girl, is slated for publication in 2026 by Rain Mountain Press’s Cassandra Series. Cindy resides in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, where she meditates, does tai chi, and studies the Russian language.