Explaining Depression to My Cousin
It’s melodrama shot execution-style on a sidewalk.
It’s a pit in your stomach stuffed with fluff.
It’s two a.m. with morning’s foot pressed to its throat.
It’s me grabbing your hand and crying on your shoulder.
It’s words desperate to find a sentence that loves them.
It’s an airless dream then waking, suddenly, suffocated.
It’s not losing a job, a loveless marriage or the desertion
of a childhood dream that once made you smile.
It’s the pill you have to take twice a day, knowing
it’s not resolved with exercise or diet or thinking
the positive thoughts that positive people think.
It’s mustering the courage to wake up tomorrow and dress,
one stupid leg after the next laborious leg, and press on.
About the Author: Nathan Graziano lives in Manchester, New Hampshire, with his wife and kids. His books include Teaching Metaphors (Sunnyoutside Press), After the Honeymoon (Sunnyoutside Press) Hangover Breakfasts (Bottle of Smoke Press in 2012), Sort Some Sort of Ugly (Marginalia Publishing in 2013), and My Next Bad Decision (Artistically Declined Press, 2014), Almost Christmas, a collection of short prose pieces, was recently published by Redneck Press. Graziano writes a baseball column for Dirty Water Media in Boston. For more information, visit his website: www.nathangraziano.com.
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Image Credit: “Nos” by Ismael Nery Public Domain
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