Meditations on Anxiety Management – Jinny Fisher

Meditations on Anxiety Management

O woman with the reassuring glasses and bun (Zoom box top right), are you the one with the
evidence? If I make coffee, can we huddle into a private screen, and pretend we’re sharing my
milk? I’m sure you have graphs and analysis to offer in return.

Someone tweeted that the heads look like Muppets and yes, there in the third row are Fozzie
and Cookie Monster. I feel like squeaking Beaker; I need someone to be Animal, so we can all
scream along.

This morning, I inspected my hair for emerging roots. I would prefer a full flaunt of bright
white—better than this rat-crawling-from-a-bag-of-flour. The creature is creeping down my
head for everyone to ogle at the next online event.

I’m fretting about blackfly on my beans. There are so many possible remedies— aluminium
foil around the stalks, vinegar water, even dilute detergent—can I learn to live with them? I
harvest some gnarly pods. Bug juice smears my Marigolds black, and stains the washing water
magenta.

I’m in a box of reinforced glass—I polish the inner surface daily. I have no ICU in my garden.
Dead bodies don’t line up for my tally. Bar charts dance across the meadow and line graphs
hang in tangled clusters from the apple trees. So I seek second-hand data: how far does the
threat travel through the air; what is the best protection for me, my partner and kids; where and
how should I mask?

Bandwidth allowing, next Saturday will be Quiz Night, and I shall wear a bobble hat. O my
friend, Serious Woman with the well-informed glasses and bun, please bring me some
reliable answers.

…

Jinny Fisher lives in Glastonbury. She is published in numerous print and online magazines and has been successful in national and international competitions — including first runner-up in Prole Laureate 2020. In 2019, V. Press published her pamphlet The Escapologist. https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=The%20Poetry%20Pram