I sit to write—
no, wait—where was I?
Oh right, the page, the pen, the—
oh, did I feed the dog this morning?
I can’t remember,
but I remember that song I heard last week,
the one with the bassline that sounded like footsteps
on a quiet street at dusk.
I should look it up,
but not now. Not now. Focus.
I try to corral the scatter,
wrestle it into something linear,
but my thoughts sprint off track,
like wild horses too proud to be tamed,
hoofbeats echoing against
the thin walls of my mind.
I hear a whisper of focus,
a fragile, fleeting thing,
but then...
did I pay that bill?
Or was that last week?
The thought derails me,
and suddenly I’m plunging
into twenty different tunnels,
each one darker than the last.
I try to speak,
but the words trip over themselves.
Half a sentence here,
a dangling thought there,
and I wonder if people see
the tangled mess beneath my skin,
if they hear the static,
feel the weight
of a world
moving too fast to grasp.
But sometimes,
in the chaos,
there is brilliance.
A spark, a flicker,
a thread of gold in the storm.
It’s in the moments when my mind leaps,
connecting dots no one else sees—
a kaleidoscope of half-thoughts
somehow finding form.
Still,
the struggle doesn’t end.
It’s hard to explain
what it’s like to live
with a brain that never stops moving,
that stumbles off the rails
just when you need it to stay steady.
But here I am,
sitting again,
lost and found all at once.
I will finish this poem,
or maybe I won’t—
oh, I should clean my desk.
Where was I?
Right.
I sit to write.
This is a poem I wrote to capture what it’s like living with ADHD — at least for me.
ADHD isn’t just about being “hyper” or “distracted” sometimes. It can feel like your mind is constantly sprinting in different directions, even when you desperately want to focus.
Writing this, I wanted to show both the struggle and the strange beauty that can come from a brain that doesn’t move in straight lines.
ADHD is messy, frustrating, and often invisible to other people — but it can also be creative, vibrant, and unexpected.
If you relate, you’re not alone. If you don’t, I hope this gives you a glimpse inside the experience.
Fun fact: This took me like 3.5 months to finish because I kept forgetting about it
