#MightyPoets

Try as I might, I'm

Nothing more than a failure

Living with the waste.

#Depression #Trauma #Suicide #PTSD #MentalHealth #Disability #MightyPoets

She heard
She heard me
Screaming my truthful trauma
From the rooftop
She sat
She sat with my trembling body
On my old striped corduroy couch
She held
She held my hand tightly
I thought I deserved to die
She reminded
She reminded me
Of all the reasons I should try
To stay alive
I was resentful yet hopeful
She helped me
She helped me get by
Today I can cry
Today I finally see
The self compassion that lies
Inside me
Ignited first,
Partially snuffed.
Resolved blame
Tender self
Loving self
Compassion swirling
Newest bodyguard
She heard me
I hear me
trembling body
Steady now

Your words are wet silks that I clutch in my hands

and twist, wringing out the heavy, oily drops.

This oil I would pour into a lamp and burn, that

your hypocrisy would vanish in the

wisps of smoke, leaving a fire that

burns cleanly.

In the light of a fire unfettered

by contradiction, the truth would show itself.

But we wouldn't see it clearly.

For we are like the trolls you once spoke of

that see the world fractured by the splinters in their eyes.

We, too, see the world shattered

by our presumptions and fears.

We do not perceive what is but only what

we believe.

So it was with us, as we stood on opposite sides of a

chasm one thousand miles and twelve months wide.

From my vantage point, so different from yours, I

could see dawn break above the life we would share.

Our path showed clearly in the quiet glow of the sun;

every gnarled root we'd stumbled over, every briar

still waiting. But in every place where the path broke

free of the brambles, our footprints faced each other,

their outlines in the clover leaves marking

where we caught each other

as we fell.

It was never easy for us

but we fought for us

because we believed.

From your vantage point, so different from mine, you

saw our footprints diverging. You said your path would

lead you through broken terrain too rugged for me to follow. How

could you be so certain, when your dawn had barely cracked

open the night? Perhaps what you saw was simply a trick

borne of the faintness of the morning's light?

If I had your eyes I

could see why you believe we

must be parted.

But my eyes are my own

and we stood apart.

Talk to me

Please?

I want to understand.

These words I gave to the wind that spanned

the distance between us

and they fell into the emptiness

where I once resided

and echoed within your silence.

#Depression #Suicide #PTSD #Trauma #MentalHealth #Disability #MightyPoets

The putrid orange slaver

Dripping from the jaws of rabid hyenas

Spewed into the sky

With their hate and their fear

A poisonous aerosol

Each droplet a prism

Splitting the sunlight

Into lasers pointing at

"Us" versus "Them"

Our colors sicken and fade

Charred around the margins

As the droplets spatter

Our roughest edges

Smeared with the cacophonous

Light of the othered

The unworthy

The enemy

Its hue, rotting respect for truth

Its saturation, dissolution of personal bonds

Its value divides the blind

From the watchers in the pale darkness

Of colors eaten away

By the lies of monsters who

See only the dead greys

Of avarice.

Let there be light no more.

Let all colors fade

Let darkness consume us all

If we could finally see

The light of the othered

The brightness of the unworthy

The humanity of the enemy.

The colors of our uniqueness as beauty

Not the mark of the feared.

#Depression #Trauma #PTSD #Suicide #MentalHealth #Disability #MightyPoets

The putrid orange slaver

Dripping from the jaws of rabid hyenas

Spewed into the sky

With their hate and their fear

A poisonous aerosol

Each droplet a prism

Splitting the sunlight

Into lasers pointing at

"Us" versus "Them"

Our colors sicken and fade

Charred around the margins

As the droplets spatter

Our roughest edges

Smeared with the cacophonous

Light of the othered

The unworthy

The enemy

Its hue, rotting respect for truth

Its saturation, dissolution of personal bonds

Its value divides the blind

From the watchers in the pale darkness

Of colors eaten away

By the lies of monsters who

See only the dead greys

Of avarice.

Let there be light no more.

Let all colors fade

Let darkness consume us all

If we could finally see

The light of the othered

The brightness of the unworthy

The humanity of the enemy.

The colors of our uniqueness as beauty

Not the mark of the feared.

#Depression #Suicide #PTSD #Trauma #MentalHealth #Disability #MightyPoets

I cannot promise

To be anything to anybody

Who am I in the

Blurry lens of your

Perception? You tell me.

I am molded clay

In your hand until

You find the stone at my core

Now you are angry

That you did not see

Me clearly, your perceptions

Led you astray

Am I to blame for

Your inability to

Face reality

And accept it as

A war between perceptions

With no conquerors

But confusion, strife

Endless gulfs between us

Misunderstanding?

#Depression #Suicide #PTSD #Trauma #MentalHealth #Disability #MightyPoets