now i wake up at
five a.m. insuring i've
sufficient time to paint
my face on kind enough
my hands
smell like coffee
i taste blood
from blisters breaking
down and around
my smallest joints
*(in control
stay in control
i have to stay
in control)*
smile until my face
aches in a kind of
competitive way
because my pain will
bring no gain if i can't
seem nicer than the next girl
*(i keep saying that i'm
dead inside but the irony
of the joke is that i'm actually
too alive to want these thoughts)*
and i'm sure if i told anyone
that anxiety keeps me wide awake
and depression keeps me asleep
they just might not believe it
*(i don't think it sounds
reasonable to say i've
got a physical and chronic
pain in my head from the
pressure of my darkest
most brutal thoughts)*
when i was thirteen
i told myself never
ever to use my mental
illness as an excuse
so i plunged forward
through depression deserts
anxiety avalanches
forests of fear
tired old towns
migraine mountains
warped wastelands and
suicide swamps
and just last week
i realized my downfall
in not letting my pain
tell me when to slow down
when what i would not
allow to be my excuse
became my
disability.
Nov 21, 2016
Nov 21, 2016 at 9:16 PM UTC
now i wake up at
five a.m. insuring i've
sufficient time to paint
my face on kind enough
my hands
smell like coffee
i taste blood
from blisters breaking
down and around
my smallest joints
*(in control
stay in control
i have to stay
in control)*
smile until my face
aches in a kind of
competitive way
because my pain will
bring no gain if i can't
seem nicer than the next girl
*(i keep saying that i'm
dead inside but the irony
of the joke is that i'm actually
too alive to want these thoughts)*
and i'm sure if i told anyone
that anxiety keeps me wide awake
and depression keeps me asleep
they just might not believe it
*(i don't think it sounds
reasonable to say i've
got a physical and chronic
pain in my head from the
pressure of my darkest
most brutal thoughts)*
when i was thirteen
i told myself never
ever to use my mental
illness as an excuse
so i plunged forward
through depression deserts
anxiety avalanches
forests of fear
tired old towns
migraine mountains
warped wastelands and
suicide swamps
and just last week
i realized my downfall
in not letting my pain
tell me when to slow down
when what i would not
allow to be my excuse
became my
disability.
Copyright 11/19/16 by B. E. McComb