Daniel Barnum lives and writes in Columbus, Ohio, where he serves as the associate managing editor of The Journal. His poems and essays are forthcoming from or have appeared in Muzzle, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Notre Dame Review, RHINO, Barrow Street, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere.

ESSAY

Holding Patterns

By DANIEL BARNUM

I do not fear strangers. Everyone in the world exists to protect me from disaster I can sense but not perceive.