MENTAL HEALTH
It Can Get Dark Sometimes
Here’s a Little Light To Help You Along the Way
It can get dark sometimes.
This, I know.
Things can look down or out of control
and sometimes you might not know who to turn to
to sort it all out
the confusion
the worry
the guilt
the shame
the agony of it all.
It might be too difficult to even think about. It might be fresh. It might be right now and you are just looking for an answer or seeking a connection. But it has a name, whatever it is — whatever shade of dark it decides to be.
At first,
it feels like a shadow, right?
A cloak of some sort
that you can’t take off.
One that makes you invisible
but only to yourself.
It has a weight
a feel
an undeniable —
gravity.
It pulls you into it
like a spiraling vortex,
it spins swirls in your mind,
hypnotic are its demands
that you bow to it
and call it
God.
You crucify yourself to it
you succumb to the pain —
the shame —
the guilt —
the blame.
You count the currency
of your torture
more than you
count your
blessings.
Darkness becomes you.
Death arrives and caters off
all her slain sisters
of emotion.
The sky changes
only to displease
the eye,
your eye
now dark.
Echoes of singular
pieces of sand
falling
from blackened hand
haunt your sacred cave.
How much time has passed?
How long have you been feeling this way?
Now it’s time for me to tell you the secret:
Call your Darkness by its name.
_______________________
© Anthony O’Dugan 2021
