Best Hypervigilant Poems
Restlessness, impulsiveness,
loquaciousness, compulsiveness,
distracted inattentiveness
and tangent railway tracks.
Complexities, anxieties
and dopamine deficiencies.
Instant gratification please,
relief for my synapse.
Procrastination, wired sensation,
biochemical frustration,
forget to take my medication.
Frontal lobe relapse.
Rapid heartbeat, fidgety feet,
hypervigilant, unable to sleep,
central nervous system freak.
Neurological cracks.
Categories:
hypervigilant, anxiety, emotions, feelings, fun,
Form:
Rhyme
I stand here in front of myself, yelling, stop.
Loudly, authoritatively, sometimes meanly.
Because I know the damage I can do with an angry face, or a disappointed demeanor, worst of all, an “I-hate-you” stance.
Releasing myself not in the least, standing here, holding myself back, forcing myself to take another look at my body language. I could cause an acapolypse by simply showing that I am enraged, outraged, hurt or disappointed.
So I stand here, in front of my true real self, with both hands out, holding fast. Fingers straight up, palms out, slowing my “I am so mad” side from doing the emotional damage I know I am capable of doing.
I am a teacher, a school counselor, a role model to children who are hypervigilant, smarter than many of the adults they are saddled with, and miss nothing. They watch my actions and reactions all day long.
They have to know that I love them every single second of every single day, and that I have their backs, and I appreciate them and respect them no matter how diabolically mean they behave, no matter how their actions and reactions can completely infuriate me.
This is why I stand here, in front of myself, holding my reptilian reactive brain back behind my thinking brain.
Written 10-06-2018 Contest: I Stand Here
Sponsor: Craig Cornish
Categories:
hypervigilant, how i feel,
Form:
Free verse
Sewing machine, I wish you could talk.
Grandma’s last friend on her final walk.
Sewing machine, I wish you could say,
What happened to her on that fateful day.
Sewing machine, her hypervigilant friend,
Wisely silent, faithful to the end.
Categories:
hypervigilant, grandmother,
Form:
Rhyme
delicate leaf faerie
clothed in naturalness
befriended fox kit once upon a time
his all-knowing amber eyes trusted her
She knew she would never let him down
hypervigilant fox recognized her benevolence
Her empathetic soul spoke to him
there was a mystical connection
together they became a beloved duo
united by their love for the woods
oaks and elms kept their secrets
gentle northern winds whispered to them
other creatures cleared a path
their allegiance recognized and revered
their leaves glistened with joy
delicate leaf faerie
and her trusted companion, fox
patrolled the ancient woods
inspiring unity, listening to ancestral voices
beloved together
Categories:
hypervigilant, animal, fairy,
Form:
Free verse
Terrorized by self
Out of control thoughts
Hypervigilant
Angry suspicions
Worked into frenzy
No evidence
Only feelings
Terrorized by
Silent stalker
Text message
Cowardly
Evil mind
Accused
Without
Proof
Categories:
hypervigilant, fear, self,
Form:
Diminished Hexaverse
deadly college campus at night
only thing moving are leaves
pick up pace, skirt brushing my legs
feeling highly vulnerable
drop a Kleenex but keep walking
of course hypervigilant now
have they caught the rapist yet?
why on earth did I wear a short skirt?
kind of night you expect to be murdered
ebony shadows make my spinal column shiver
heard a footstep, dared not look behind me
sure I will momentarily be killed
Categories:
hypervigilant, fear, feelings,
Form:
Free verse
I am hitchhiking rides to Britt, Iowa this week, and I’m not green.
Fully intend to be named the glorified, brand new 2021 Hobo Queen.
Wish people marked cars like they put hobo symbols on a fence post.
I do not wish to get in with an axe murderer, a most horrible host.
Used to jump in box cars but the rail yards are computerized now.
They have surveillance cameras that count the hairs on each brow.
Live by wits, my hypervigilant ideas keeping me alive, it never fails.
The quickest way to the hoosegow is to get close to one of those rails.
A prissy lady stopped and handed me meat sandwiches yesterday.
She thinks if she wants to get to Jesus land, she somehow has to pay.
Uh-oh. The cops are here to give me a ride to the county line.
Riding rom sheriff’s car to sheriff’s car I should get to Britt just fine.
Categories:
hypervigilant, 10th grade, 11th grade,
Form:
Rhyme
We became friends before she lost herself
Growing up together, we loved many of the same things
As a young wife, in an abusive situation, she had reinvented herself
A fearful shadow, hypervigilant.
She had been opinionated and self-assured.
That person was dead; gone, buried, her ashes blown.
I offered to pay for her therapy. She smiled but did not reply.
She flinched a bit when I persisted, so I stopped.
She followed me around for a year or two
Doing what I was doing, saying what she thought I wanted her to say
I released her into the wind, hoping she could rediscover herself
I told her to come back when she remembered who she used to be.
Categories:
hypervigilant, abuse, woman, women,
Form:
Prose Poetry
When I clone myself, I will make a marionette the Mime told me.
A great idea, as any observant hypervigilant watcher can see.
I watch her marionette dancing in a happy summer time way.
And I think how much fun the Mime must be, merry and gay.
The Mime is a trickster though, wearing a faux happy mask.
She makes it look like she is delighting in his puppeteer’s task.
Inside she is crying, inconsolable and ready to burst with sorrow.
I am afraid that the marionette will be the only one here tomorrow.
Categories:
hypervigilant, 10th grade, 11th grade,
Form:
Rhyme
Watch what you do.
Children are watching.
Watch what you say.
They hear you.
Watch your stance.
Children are hypervigilant.
Watch your face.
They pick up on every little wisp of emotion.
Watch yourself.
Children are everywhere.
Categories:
hypervigilant, mother daughter, mother son,
Form:
Free verse
Her calm fettered visage reveals nothing
She is as stoic as any sentry
I imagine she is secretly hypervigilant
However, she is unyielding
A plethora of pernicious bats
Might have trouble dampening this queen.
She probably enjoyed stinging the others to death
I watch her traverse the honey comb highway
In an ethereal, astral state, I watch her movements.
She is larger than I thought which increases my fear
Each heart felt buzz a bit louder as she closes in.
I am the last potential queen to be eliminated.
Categories:
hypervigilant, 10th grade, 11th grade,
Form:
Personification
voice
and tone
inflections
gives away mood
sometimes shows sorrow
stress conveyed quite clearly
in tiny conversations
in slivers of body language
hypervigilant children read you
Categories:
hypervigilant, life,
Form:
Nonet
She wore a skull on her belt, but it was small
And it did not have hair on it or flesh,
so the parents thought it was a faux skull.
But it was the real deal, just shrunken afterwards
She walked the halls in a weird way,
without putting her feet down, so you did not hear her
coming which was a bit creepy at first
Horrifying later
The kindergarteners were the first to be totally
terrified of Queen, our new principal. They began
crying, sobbing, wailing, keening at the first assembly
When she introduced herself with her perfect
blonde hair and her perfect skin
Skin she apparently stole from
others who were more deserving of it.
I know she prowls in the evening and eats her
fill, slurping warm salty blood out of necks before
her victim understands they are paralyzed and cannot
save themselves in any way at all.
She walks the halls in a sneaky, non-sounding way.
Horrifying those of us who recognize her.
I keep waiting for her to realize who we are
so she will know what she has to do.
Every day, I keep wide awake, with my eyes
to the door, hypervigilant of who she is and what she
is about; knowing my days are numbered, as yours are too.
Even as a third grader, I recognize evil when I smell her.
Categories:
hypervigilant, 10th grade, 11th grade,
Form:
Light Verse
He thought no one could love him
Because he was unlovable
He knew this without being told
in words
His mother considered him a burden
he had felt this from infancy
Left on his own in a crib,
sobbing for attention
He was startled when he was given a home
Thought it was a trick
expected they would be mean to him
His mother always told him they would
if they ever “took him away”
He was on guard and hypervigilant
for several years, not able to let his guard down
remembering that he was unlovable
Categories:
hypervigilant, 10th grade, 11th grade,
Form:
Prose Poetry
Elvania queen of the warrior elves entered the jungle
As a cat, with glowing eyes, hypervigilant and aware.
Her keen senses smelled Barley Root, a sure sign of the Slothers.
They had been here, and recently. Her nose picked up their scent.
With every pore, she listened, hearing another’s breath.
There was something close by; animal or Slother, she knew not.
Her bow and arrows were ready. She felt them twitching for a battle.
A tiny Hemancer came out to get a drink from the pond.
She did not release her hold on her knife, listening.
The elves were about to crucify the Slothers, and they were aware.
A scared Slother was a dangerous Slother. Her senses intensified.
So many sights and sounds in the jungle, but she was ready.
The Hemancer gave her a snort and paraded back into the tall grass.
No idea how capable she was of slitting his throat in seconds.
Her comrades joined her. Any sign of the Slothers?
Take a whiff, she said. The battle was about to commence.
Categories:
hypervigilant, fantasy,
Form:
Prose Poetry