Fear

My Fear

He follows us, he keeps track.
Each day his lists are longer.
Here, death, and here,
something like it.

Mr. Fear, we say in our dreams,
what do you have for me tonight?
And he looks through his sack,
his black sack of troubles.

Maybe he smiles when he finds
the right one. Maybe he’s sorry.
Tell me, Mr. Fear,
what must I carry

away from your dream.
Make it small, please.
Let it fit in my pocket,
let it fall through

the hole in my pocket.
Fear, let me have
a small brown bat
and a purse of crickets

like the ones I heard
singing last night
out there in the stubbly field
before I slept, and met you.

—Lawrence Raab



This addresses the nagging aspect that fear gives. He follows us... fear follows a person and indeed keeps track. People gain more fears as their lives go on (though they may lose some, they tend to gain more). More bad things happen to people as their lives go on and that develops more fears. The black sack of troubles is simply a metaphor for the cloud of fear and dread that hangs over a person. The person is willing fear to keep the fears small- keep it something that can fall through the hole in his pocket, something that he can lose easily and overcome. The other interesting part is the last line, which says "before I slept and met you". This says that he met fear in his dreams- therefore the fears that he has are not concrete, they are abstract fears, which is why Fear can not make it small enough to fit in his pocket- abstract fears are not small. Instead Fear must carry around the black bag; to fit the abstract fears.