Freeze

Jim van den Bos
2 min readJun 14, 2021
Photo by Josh Hild from Pexels

It’s the great lions natural way
To fight its way out of trouble.
To bare its claws and roar.
It’s manes swell to boast it’s size.
The loud earth shattering sound
of it’s fearful roar petrify the antelope.

It’s an antelopes natural way around the lion.
To run as fast as it’s thin legs can.
Jumping high, criss cross, shaking.
The pursuer of his own course away.
Heart beating the adrenaline drum.
Speeding to survival, past the rocks afar.

It’s the poison dart frog that sits still.
Scaring its enemies with deadly colors.
Idle poison drips down the skin of its side.
The working class animals that walk by.
Never suspect their last hour has come.
The frogs keep busy raising little poisonous tadpoles

As nature develops all of these ways of survival
Then why do I stop in motion, I freeze
Panic and screams present in my thoughts
I silence myself and search for one solution
To stop time and freeze the world with me
So that I can hold on just a little longer

I don’t want the world to see me scream like the lion,
and say he’s a drama queen.
I don’t want the world to see me run fast as the antelope,
and declare me a coldhearted coward.
I don’t want the world to see me vicious, venomous,
and hurt others like me to lessen my pain.
So I don’t show it and I freeze.
And my world stops with me.

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Jim van den Bos

I am an Amsterdam based writer, to whom poetry comes easiest. Love to explore storytelling, and how that works in real life as well. Curious about most things.