A Journey Through a Restaurant by Lea Harrington
Walking through this restaurant
to the restroom -
always in the back,
of course
A gauntlet
one must walk
to go
where one needs to go
People look at me,
stare,
laugh at me.
What...
We’re Not Settling by Jeffrey Powell
when they’re arresting, stifling, tranquilizing
not standing for our backfire
what’s really wrong - can they answer that
why can’t they promise not to mire
At first we...
Head on a Stick by Jennifer Chapman
I feel a push and pull inside of me,
Deep in the pit of my soul.
Roots stretch to the ends of my stomach,
Tangled with bones—
A...
You Are A World by Tara Rae Behr
You are a world.
You are not a sign,
a category, a personality,
a label, a diagnosis, a spectacle,
a thing to be analyzed, or figured out.
Others who...
Shame by Destiny Woodward
There is a vastness of sorrow and emptiness within me that I can’t describe. The sting of shame, the flames of regret consume me....
Psychiatry Gave Me PTSD by Nicola Clare
Psychiatry gave me PTSD.
Psychiatry gave me PTSD
A silhouette now
Or a hologram
Wedged between sheets of sound
Proof, somehow
Shatter proof glass
Stuck
For an eternity; cast,
A mad ranting lunatic!
Labels...
I Needed a Guide by Mad Preschool Teacher
Still feels like yesterday
16 alone with this unrecognized gift
I can touch God
I can feel everything
Way too much pain though too much beauty
I needed a...
The World We Live In by Alex Klein
Disruptive
Changing the flow
Yell too loud
They’ll alert the popo
Corrective action
For voicing your needs
No body listens
When you’re a mental disease
Get out please stop that
We don’t know...
Ode to the Path of Least Resistance by Gunnar Burton
A legacy of water
Once Imprisoned in a geological Alcatraz
inert, helpless, gravity it’s only friend
Became
an emphatic knife carving through hard
Precambrian flesh
always under cover of shadow
a...
Numb by ElizaM
Dissociation feels like my head is stuffed with cotton and I can't hear right.
Like trying to have a conversation under water.
Muffled. Blurry. Both heavy...
Are You Ok? by Alex K.
Are you taking your meds?
Are you right in the head?
Are you doing ok?
Am I behind on pills today?
You seem manic
More like you can’t stand...
When the Lunatics Arise by Bonnie Schell
“It is the very error of the moon. She comes more near the earth than she was wont. And makes men mad.” - Shakespeare,...
TRUE STORY by Jasmine Marshall
i went to the gym the other day and got hit on by a man over twice my age he asked me about my...
Vacant House by Tara Rae Behr
I never knew what it was like—-to inhabit my body.
I was always
inhabiting
others bodies in my body
since the cave opened and my heart beheld the...
Proofs by Dana Henry Martin
Because tree stumps have replaced office chairs.
Because a city of wind has replaced commercial
business parks. Because infinity has been revealed
as a tidy line of...
Khepri by Michael Hudson
O give me in a shrink the god who rolled Ra
across the heavenly sky each day from dawn,
making everything seem so fresh and young
beneath...
See Your Ancestors Smile by J.H.
As we lie together
Worlds apart
Seek shelter
With me.
Weave your
Stolen freedom
Into a new dream;
Between skipped
Heartbeats,
Show me
A world burning
Only with
Your fire.
My sweet sublimity,
Take hold of this
Outstretched hand...
And You by Douglas Westberg
And You
a glosa
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into...
The Light Prevailed by Diana Spore
The primary wall stood strong and tall, until she started to chisel her way through
She had been told that she would never recover --
From...
King of the Hill by Virgo Phoenix
This gnawing burning squiggle of an emotion that streams through insipidness; speaks in the space where my gut meets the churning locket of despair.
Alone,...
The Parasite Within by Rhiannon Chianese
I claw and climb into your head,
Controlling your thoughts until I am fed.
With a drink or a drug, I will be seized.
With a drink...
Moonlight Mystery by Jason Aull
Lively do the shadows play
Within the darkened lonely way
Few dare tread along the deep
Where hatreds children play with sleep
Rage and laughter fill the day
As...
Dearest Doctor by Brighid Aime
Dearest Doctor #2, don't dollop me in shame (or throw me a death sentence for that matter).
Don't tell me I need to be happy...
Algorithm Poem #1 by Steven T. Licardi
There’s got to be an algorithm
to determine
the precise number of physicians
you need to visit
before you become little more
than a heap of diagnoses
imprisoned
in manilla envelopes
stacked
to...
Neuroleptic Skeptic by Jeffrey Powell
It’s just a little pill
that they say will fix your nerves;
An antipsychotic
- which will normalize your aim.
“We need you to fit in
and we need...
