Posting As Is

This one is asinine, but I'm done with it, so post it I shall. 

It’s daunting to take on a commitment as large as NaPoWriMo, but here you are. Today is Day 3, and you are facing your fears. RWP member Joseph Harker thinks there’s a poem in that; here’s his prompt for you:

Write about something that scares you. It could be tarantulas or your significant other cheating on you or an existential fear of the unknown so long as it unsettles you. Describe it in the most vivid language possible!  Sometimes by articulating our fears, we strip them of their power. (But don’t go too far! A little fear is good to have.)

[Caveat:  I haven't committed.  Not really.  I'm just playing along for now.]
[Caveat:  And yeah, well, I did go too far.  Oh, well.]

TITLE
Fear List: Beginning with
“All of my poems become
rhyming bits of doggerel and rhythmic schizophrenia,
like this one”

(SUBTITLE: The poetic equivalent of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, with head-snapping sudden changes of direction and heart-stopping plunges)

Pain and mediocrity,
and what if my dogs could talk?
(Oh, thanks, Billy Collins, for your effing revenant.)

Inertia,
blindness,
loss of teeth,
and what if I couldn’t walk?
(Or losing money and job, and becoming mendicant.)

Earthquakes over five-point-nine,
being thought of as harsh or unkind,

swiss-cheese memories

and a plaque-y brain;
passengering on a burning plane;

being left out,
or left out of the loop,
loved ones flying earth’s physical coop;

the thought of never weighing less,
being told I must wear a dress;

facing a blank page and finding
I have nothing to say;
writing for hours and still finding
I have nothing to say;

an ear bent badly
so I hear things wrongly
and thus represent them poorly
so the muse flees me quickly;

losing it
because I’m not using it
(and many “its” apply);

loss of control,
lack of self-determination
at the expense of logic
and what’s best for the kids;
some of my students’ bleak futures,
inability to change our school culture;
a generation gone awry;
forgetting how to cry,
or crying too much;
being stupid and such;

inability to see the big picture,
helpless suffering in God’s animal creatures;

acedia,
conservative media;

what God might do to me
or ask me to do;

not being as intelligent as I like to think;
…and apparently everything but the kitchen sink!
(Yeah, that I’m not afraid of at all…
well, except when the plumber has to be called.)