Stress Poem by Justin Reamer

A jab of dopamine from the amygdala,
A rushing locomotive charging down the tracks,
A blaring security alarm in a submarine,
The weight of boulders piling on top each other,
Crushing its victim with a strong gravitational pull
Until an A-Bomb detonated in the area below,
Annihilating everything in a hundred-mile radius
What stress and anxiety do to the people they infect,
Including innocent victims like me.

A grievous monster, stress comes from
The smallest things that matter not:
The car keys you forgot in your
Jacket pocket a few seconds ago,
The urine puddle your puppy
Left for you to clean up at home,
The cumbersome arguments about
The toilet seat with your spouse,
The stones your daughter burned in the oven
When she tried baking cupcakes that night,
And the forgotten trashcans that
Were supposed to be taken to the curb
Before your family went to bed.

The small things add up, continuously growing at
An increasing rate like bacterial mitosis in a lab,
Weighing you down with each additional pound like
A barbell forced on your shoulders as a form of torture,
Crushing your legs and back until they are no more.

Although stress comes from things big and small,
We have the ability to choose its affects.
Same or mad, it masters not what it is,
But we can choose to be the caged animal or
The free men we want to be;
But nothing can save us from madness
Unless we choose it to be so.