Going Away

New places scare me

Travel steals my sleep

Little can be comforting

Dreams make me weep

Water filling up coaches

Aircraft going up in fumes

Us fighting for each breath

Even as sure doom looms

“Journey matters” they say

I await them with dread

It never eases or goes away

Some of us just want to stay

Whatever we call home

With familiar smelling sheets

All the ‘travelers’ can roam

Leave us to our streets

Note: It’s been months since I travelled due to Covid19 and one day before our December trip, for the first time, I felt a sense of unease and didn’t really look forward to travelling. While I experienced only mild feelings of discomfort at the thought of leaving home for a few days, it reminded me of a conversation with somebody in the family, who revealed how they experience high anxiety and sometime even panic attacks before they have to travel somewhere. It’s that conversation that inspired me to write this poem.