Comforts of Fear

You are the murky film that coats my independence.
Baptized in dread, left matte and damp.
Muscles of freedom stay weak from neglect.
My deep inhale of contentment is halted by apprehension.
I pick the skin around my fingernails
until they are raw.
The smoke from my cigarette stings
as it infiltrates the open wounds.
My jaw aches from constant clenching,
in turn dwindling the stature of my teeth.
You distract me from my life.
Fleecing my destiny, one layer at a time.
You run so deep in my veins,
slowing the flow, consuming serenity.
Yet I fear a cleansing transfusion.
Comfortable, abundant fear.
Oh, familiar anxiety.
I can feel you.
I can touch you.
I know you are there.


Kelly Ann Malone was born and raised in Southern California. She has been writing since she was around twelve years old. Some of her poetic influences are Ogden Nash, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Teasdale, Dickinson, Billy Collins and Dorothy Parker to name a few. Some of her published credits include North Carolina University's Presses "Free-Verse Magazine," Poems Niederngasse, Albany University's "Offcourse Literary Journal", Temple University's "Schuylkill Creative and Critical Review", Duke University's "Voices" Journal, San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, Muse Apprentice Guild Literary Magazine, York University's School of Women's Studies Journal, "The Permanente Journal of the Arts and Medicine", "Ars Medica, A Journal of Medicine, The Arts, Ascent Aspirations Magazine, The New Formalist, Humanities-Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto Canada" and The Pittsburgh Quarterly.