Taking Fright

A poem about a phobia

I have no need to dig or dive or delve

Into the root or cause of my malaise,

The legacy of London 2012

Will mar forever my remaining days;

I fear those hostile promptings: ‘Let’s rejoice

And follow in the footsteps of the best!

Embrace some taxing torture of your choice

And join the joggers, gymnasts and the rest!’

Now terror fills my breast when I behold

These horrifying spectres flying past

On trainers, skateboards, cycles, young and old,

Whose frantic need for speed leaves me aghast.

Oh, let me vegetate and drown in drink

This dread of movement, moderate or aerobic,

For ‘fear of motion’ is the mark, I think,

Of how it feels to be kinetophobic.