Alexithymia in 2020 America

We bring in each item:
one at a time
wipe it down with a Clorox wipe

Shadows crossing the threshold
My throat tightens
My stomach turns
My face remains the same

Northern winters subside early
Plans to landscape the yard
Keep Busy
Find joy in connecting with the earth

My enthusiasm for spring freedom is met
By first time back-alley encounters with the asthma gang
Somehow the wind isn’t knocked out of me
instead
The air is knocked into me – unable to breathe out
Drowning in banana slug filling my lungs as trees celebrate

Humans in captivity

I am the prisoner of my air filter –
Stockholm syndrome in the bedroom.

Suddenly, I am in a high-risk population.
Unemployed.
Surviving.

My therapist asks me about emotions
My throat tightens
My stomach turns
My face remains the same

I watch the door.

Lo Potter is an author living in Missoula, Montana. They grew up on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia with a “Waterman Accent” that comes out accidentally at times. They received their BSc from Mary Baldwin Women’s College in Staunton, Virginia, and their MS from Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their poetry collection, “A Hundred Different Skies” comes out Summer 2020.