Did I Hear You Say?

It's of an old friend
Or enemy
An ever-present (once)
Fear

Fear of what?
You ask
And why that once
In parentheses?

Does fear need a name?
Oh I gave it one
Once
When it tried to rule
And I stared into pitiless eyes
Can you know that?
Have you been frozen
In motionless time
Unable to move
Or speak
While that we call I
Fought
The nameless
For sanity?

Well I won
You see
A hard time it was
But I won

It is no small thing to be I
Awareness brings its own responsibility
It runs in the family
Paranoia

12/10/04

Is that a poem? If it is, it's the first I've done in thirty years...