Amelia Whyatt's "Panic" follows a panic attack from start to finish, using counting as its backbone. At first the numbers run in tidy order, one to twelve, but the speaker's thoughts pile up and time seems to speed along. Then something snaps, and the line "I lost count" breaks the pattern. After that, the numbers skip and tumble backward, which mirrors the speaker's shaky breathing, racing heartbeat and trembling legs. Even the rhyme starts to slip, as the speaker notes.
The mood shifts as the poem moves. It begins with tension, grows frantic in the middle, then settles into quiet. The counting returns to its steady order, and the final line, "I do not loose count," feels like a small victory. The poem suggests that panic can feel like losing control of your own mind, but that calm can return, and counting can help hold things together until it does.