Short Hypervigilant Poems

Omniscient presence
She does notice everything
Hypervigilant
Saturated with knowledge
She wisely keeps confidence...

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flower petals of a curious mind
hypervigilant and resourceful
springing from garden of experience
fragrant and poignant well-built dendrites...

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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...

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hyperion
world’s tallest living redwood tree
higher than the Statue of Liberty
she oversees her forest
hypervigilant
all-knowing.
her subjects wave their leaves
showing their appreciation
for her protective service...

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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...

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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....

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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....

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Hypervigilant are both dogs
Fat and juicy, built like farm hogs
They are in a huge pen with plenty to do
Do they know that I, their gatekeeper, is watching them too?

I am vastly aware how fast they are
As I open the gate, not far from a car
Being knocked down by the front gate
Is pretty often now my fate...

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my dogs can be in the dead zone
snores as deep as the grand canyon
but when daddy opens the frig
they are as awake as a grumpy newborn
hypervigilant, they wait to hear the pop
they move toward the kitchen
to see what they will beg for
they don’t do this to you! my husband says
of course they don’t.
I don’t share my people food.
They have their own duck and chicken delights....

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I feel eyes watching me before I notice the woman across the room.
I try not to stare, but she does not seem to mind.
We are in the library, the only two here.

Her caramel eyes are pensive, wary.
She is hypervigilant, unhurried, unpressured.
I smile but she does not reciprocate.

I think of her as the watcher
wondering what has caused her
to develop and hone
this kind of untrusting awareness....

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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...

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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....

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A delicate ego, fragile, hypervigilant, easily broken.
	A frightened ego.
Hidden in self shadow, scared,
	Not easily lured out.

A well-built wall,
	Constructed slowly, during hurt felt times.
A new persona.  The protector, child’s own new identity.
	To keep herself safe.
	From the bad man.

Situation scary, heroine comes forward,
	Baring teeth, biting.
		Bad kid label.

Grownups misunderstand
	Frightened by her fierceness, 
		Not recognizing a child
		Just trying to survive....

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