Something moved Before you saw it Before you named it Before you decided To be afraid Your body already knew Heart Faster Blood Faster Breath Faster Eyes open wide Muscles tighten Everything unnecessary Goes quiet Listen There is no philosophy here No belief No good No evil No tomorrow Only Now RUN The body doesn't ask What you believe It doesn't wait For permission It doesn't need Your name It has one job Keep this vessel Alive So the heart pounds The hands shake The mouth goes dry The stomach turns And every little thing That mattered Ten seconds ago Disappears The argument The money The reputation What somebody said About you Gone Because something Might be coming And the ancient alarm Has sounded RUN HIDE FIGHT FREEZE SURVIVE And when the danger passes Something beautiful Is supposed to happen The alarm Stops Heart slows Breath returns Hands release The vessel discovers I AM Still here That was fear Before we taught it Our language Before we gave it A calendar Before we gave it Bank accounts Before we gave it Religion Before we gave it Our children Before we gave it The future Fear was never meant To tell you How to live It was meant To tell the body When to move But something happened We began hearing The alarm When there was No fire No predator No footsteps No one At the door Just a thought What if I lose it ALARM What if they leave me ALARM What if I fail ALARM What if I get sick ALARM What if I die ALARM What if God is angry ALARM What if ALARM What if ALARM WHAT IF ALARM And eventually We stopped asking Where is the danger We heard the alarm And assumed There must be one Listen Your heart can race Because a lion Is chasing you And your heart can race Because you imagined Thursday Same heart Same alarm Different lion One is standing In front of you The other Doesn't exist Yet Maybe never And still The vessel prepares To survive it There is nothing wrong With the alarm It is ancient Beautiful Faithful It has been protecting This vessel Since before you knew You had one But an alarm Was never meant To become A home And somewhere Along the way We moved in Locked the door And called it Safety
