This was a brilliant poem. Here is some feedback/praise:

*I adored "and talked to her through the silhouette it left." Truly, aren't we all, at our basest forms, simply the facades we show to other people? Or as Vonnegut put it, "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”?

*I thought that you captured hypochondria in an accessible and poignant light. It was heartbreaking, and it made me feel a great deal of empathy for the person described.

*"she was afraid of being afraid." brilliant.

*My only critique would be to end it a different way. The whole piece is focused on her, and the emotion that the "he" in the piece feels (he was afraid he would always feel like this) isn't clearly expressed. I would either stick to describing Sammy, or expand on the other person's feelings more. I did love the last line, but like I said, I think his feelings need clarification here.

Thank you so much for sharing. Really enjoyed this.

I really love this poem. Fear and the comfort found in others. One thing I would suggest is, since the poem doesn't rhyme, an amendment to the second to last line that rhymes with Alive("I'm afraid to just survive" is what I was thinking) could really drive home your last line because it would be the only couplet that rhymes in the whole poem. However, that is assuming your willing to break the wholeness the poem gains from the consistent style. Beautiful poem, don't stop writing I love your style. 

'600' would work.

And tbh, even though it is a little unwieldy, I actually like the upfrontness of "afraid of being afraid."  It's better than putting up some metaphor for fear and saying she was afraid of that.  I mean it's not a flawless way to do it, but hey, this is an amateur sub and this is a great poem.

This has some really potent moments in it.  The one bit that rang a little false to me was L5, where the speaker mentions the exact distance (643 kilometers) from the nearest body of water.  Perhaps a distance that feels a little less precise might help this part fit more seamlessly into the whole. 

In addition, I'm going to disagree with a previous commenter.  I think stating ones emotions directly and explicitly is a bit of a cop out.  In L10, "afraid of being afraid", couldn't you have *shown* us this emotion, rather than *telling* us about it?  I found that section much weaker in impact than the surrounding lines, which was a bit of a disappointment.

 But on balance, really nice work here.  Very much enjoyed it.  

he ripped the paper mache down 


and talked to her through the silhouette it left.


she wanted to scream about things,


like how she was afraid of drowning


even though she lived 643 kilometers


from the nearest body of water, 


or how she was afraid of suffering 


from a rare illness that left her body immobile 

but her brain completely intact.


most of all, she was afraid of being afraid. 


he took the light out of the space that
divided them and rearranged it. 


he told her he was afraid he would always feel like this. 


she told him that that is what it feels to be alive.


[1](https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/550olo/for_peter_my_ghost/)[2](https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/5122x0/i_told_my_grandad_to_become_an_astronomer/)

sammy