When I traverse by a lift,
want someone beside
since I am apprehensive
of lift's midway ceasing,
as I am claustrophobic.
When I ascend the multi-storeyed
I dare not look down,
my head reels,
I envisage a gravity fall
as I am acrophobic
and also basophobic.
13 was my lucky number
till I lost my father
on a fine 13th.
Since then my mind
cautions me of a bad omen
if some auspicious happening
is to launch on thirteen
as the syndrome of triskaidekaphobia
has stealthily set in.
I avoid visiting friends
where dogs are their pets,
fearing licks and bites of canines.
I heave a sigh of relief
when pets are fastened aside
proving that I'm a cynophobic.
Also when cats peep into my kitchen
sensing the odour of fish and milk,
I shrink to myself
at the sight of felines
and immediately realize
that I am an ailurophobic.
But a trip to a foreign land
when beckons me,
my mind becomes a hovercraft
and takes on an immediate cruise,
oblivious of all my phobias.
As I realize
a single phobia is yet to
take me over
' Xenophobia'-as the term appears.
Swatimalya Chattopadhyay
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/phobias-2/
