To a Friend Who Spent Two Months in a Psych Ward

by Carolyn Martin

Have your new meds kicked in yet?

When the last ones bombed

and those voices demanding suicide

Image credit: Matteo Badini on Unsplash

shoved you to the brink,

I was bereft of strategies.

That you could promise me

one more week of life satisfied,

but the days are running out.

I know you don’t believe those bullies

in your head aren’t you, but consider

pharma’s side effects. They horrify.

Please reply to this email in sentences

or, at least, a phrase or two.

Sad-faced emojis don’t contain the you of you.

Have the new pills offered slivers of silences?

Have you seen the sunlight on your daffodils,

the buds on your star magnolia tree?

Can you promise me your life for another week?

Talking rationally about the irrational

is ludicrous, my dear,

so my final words-of-the-day:

I’m here. I’m still here.

***

Carolyn Martin

Blissfully retired in Clackamas, Oregon, Carolyn Martin is a lover of gardening and snorkeling, feral cats and backyard birds, writing and photography. Her poems have appeared in more than 200 journals throughout North America, Australia, and the UK. Find out more at www.carolynmartinpoet.com.