Hello PoetryVoting

Vote

Voting-Boards

Home

HomeFollowingInboxNotifications

Read

ReadLiftedFeedsHeartedHistoryMy poemsNew poem

Explore

ExploreOrbitsWordsTagsClassics
Log in
0
Stars
0
Embers
0
Alerts
0
Inbox

Vote

Voting-Boards

Home

HomeFollowingInboxNotifications

Read

ReadLiftedFeedsHeartedHistoryMy poemsNew poem

Explore

ExploreOrbitsWordsTagsClassics
Log in
0
Stars
0
Embers
0
Alerts
0
Inbox

Addiction

Sadness isn't just one emotion

      it's a blanket

that warms the others

                                Warm, how unusual

            yet all my sadness

is never cold

                                                                                          never cool

                  I like things that are

cool

   and I do not like sadness

                               no, to me it is warm

                                     uncomfortably so

         as though lit by the fires of a hell I don't believe in

a torment in false hopes

         hope that is so warm

                just like sadness

                                       which is like

hope and despair

              seasoned with twinges of guilt

                             and anxiety

  like the horrid blush that comes

when you've done something naughty

burning so hot you fear your face

will melt

         that is what sadness feels like

to me

   wretched and horrid and never enough shame

       So silly, to think there's something that ought to go with it

                                              as though sadness itself were not enough

 

         perhaps they were right

            you can become addicted

                        to a certain kind of sadness

           like a drug of sorts

  a chemical cocktail you brew in your mind

          to douse your feelings when you don't want them

      because sadness is safe

                                                 it's familiar

                                                                                                and you know how to deal with it

 

 

                                        so you think

 

                      even as it eats you alive from the inside

              you think you can control it

                         that you can stop whenever you want

                                and that's the lie of it

                                                        because

sadness

isn't just sadness

        it's everything else we don't need

                                     don't want

                            

shame

         remorse       

       regret       

                              fear

 

                             why hold on to them?

                         yet I can't seem to stop

           it pulls me back

addicted to the drug of familiarity

       funny, I think, to be addicted to shame

                                   touted so long as something to shy away from

         that regret is not worth the effort

   and remorse a thing

to let go of

        yet here I am

clasping them in my hands

  breathing life to them

when they wither

terrified when they are gone

       a curse that I know will return

                     so why wish for it to leave?

           A life can be lived in the warmth

                          not a good one, albeit

                    but a life

                        instead of a lie

                     an addiction to sadness

                                 rather than

happiness

          at least I shall never be disappointed.

Request permission to use this poem
Written by
jayme-m-yaroch
American
Published
Oct 20, 2013
Lines·Words
76·357
Permission

Request to use this poem

Tell jayme-m-yaroch how you would like to use it. We review requests before forwarding them.

AboutBlogFAQPrivacyTermsContact
© 2009-2026 Hello Poetry/v27.0 by @eliotyork
Explore
Hello PoetryVoting
Write