A Poem by Daniel Slaten

Start the Panic

he dances backwards into the room
the moment everything explodes
a mushroom cloud of watermelon-scented
               anxiety
covers all but the only thing
the everything the anything
the absolutely nothing thing
               that matters
or doesn't does it
no of course it doesn't
it never will it never did
               it never should
and so it is
and so it isn't
a celebration of movement
               in that
moment
of utter panic
when the watermelon-scented
               anxiety
woke us all from our slumber




Daniel Slaten writes short stories and poetry in small notebooks and on sticky notes.