Atmospheric Pressure

I feel the pressure

to keep quiet,

dumb down,

get on my knees

and ask forgiveness

for the sin of being born.

No one tells me this,

but it’s in the air.

Maybe it has something

to do with climate change

or collective fear,

in the atmosphere.

Maybe it’s some deep

primordial inclination,

some self-sabotage

imbedded in my DNA

that foments public insecurity

and makes me want to choke

down a dead dictionary,

crawl under a rock,

and tell myself to

shut the fuck up and die!