this is a downward *****
it is steep and unyielding
there are many bumps along the way

i fall, and i fall
the sharp rocks hurt;
now i lay at the bottom,
beaten and bruised.

and then i slip again

I break the surface
As the water recedes
I'm no longer fighting
Washed up in the weeds

I look for the voice
Calling out to me
Feeling the sand
Away from the sea

I crawl for a while
Then stand on my feet
I take a few steps
Snow following sleet

I walk for the hills
The sun escapes me
The night draws in
Moon lights the quay

There on the pier
You waited for me
You never gave up
You kept calling me

The pain in my heart
I left in the sea
No longer distressed
I'm finally free

By Darren Wall

I am not a laundry list of symptoms
Brought on by endless assaults of a developing mind
I am not the carnage left behind by all the people who have failed me
The complications in my brain in no way lower the scale of my worthiness
And I in no way deserve to feel as if my resilience has morphed me into
a burden to love
Because I have survived far too much in my quarter life
And I’ve been forced to become a warrior in a lifelong battle that I never wanted any part of
But I’ve never let the battlefield turn me into a pit of boundless bitterness
Instead here I still stand a beacon of light
A lighthouse in an unrelenting storm
Now the lights can flicker on occasion
But I always find a way to shine back through the sea of dark pewter sky and into my
ocean of optimistic empathy
And my light deserves to be more than tolerated
It deserves to be seen.