Bart Wilcox
Growing Alarm
2026, Gouache and acrylic
on canvas, 20″ x 16″

Although you didn’t
ask for them,
the blooms of anxiety
have their own garden,
and now you have to
water them, feed them,
as if running a hospice
for unwanted foliage.
They wake at all hours
and cry out,
“What’s happening?
What’s to be done?”
Nothing, you say,
nothing.
Go to sleep.