I Am At The Line, by Cindy Patrick

Turns out, I am at the line. The line of stressed or not. Don’t push me, I am right there. Sometimes you can’t feel it creeping up. It occurs to you driving home. I ask myself, “Are you okay?” When I answer myself, “no”, I must take note. Talking to 200 people a day, hearing their opinions, getting “thanks for being here” is fine. But too many are demanding and self-absorbed. We want bleach and flour. While others don’t? They don’t, and will never, realize that they start sentences like “but all I want”. All I want. In a pandemic.