by Colleen Marlow

Barnard is tense. There are three of them in the bedroom discussing the matter.

"I wake up all week with paralyzing anxiety, and today I find this sticking out of my bed." The fiber he holds between his fingers is an anxious fiber, a dark and angry-looking strand.

"My mattress pad is filled with these! They've stuffed my mattress with anxiety!"

The two unbesieged muse:

"Well just who is that now, and why would they do such a thing?"

"Would it be out of malice or resourcefulness?"

"Right! Perhaps there is a shortage of geese!"

"Perhaps there is a surplus of anxiety!"

"Just think where else they might be putting it…"

Barnard from across the room cries out, "Good grief, do these curtains look stressed out to you?!"