The Earth Beside Me

This poem was written while watching a thunderstorm by my window, writing down my thoughts as they came to me, hence the occasional staggered thoughts. This poem is a metaphor for clinical depression.

By the window, I watch

Quietly as the rain falls,

The thunder shaking the earth

Beside me. I look away, thinking

How such weather can weigh

On my soul, on my thoughts,

And on the roof above my head.

It's been raining like this,

On and off for the last few days,

Maybe even weeks, I don't know,

I don't keep track, I just try

To focus on the sunshine,

So not to be consumed

By the storm.

Flash Flood Warning, blaring on

My phone, then silence, the only sound

Remaining being the weather,

And the shaking of the earth beside me.

As I write this I think back

To the faux pas of run on sentences--

Lightning-- and "incomplete" thoughts

That I was taught about in school,

How it was unprofessional

And sloppy.

I laugh to myself, "Maybe an essay

Needs a format, but saying there's a 'right' way

To express yourself would imply

The mind, heart, and soul of all humans

Can have a uniform 'one size fits all' manual."

And thus, I digress, Often...

This storm, so gray, only to flash

White for an instant to remind us

It's really there. Fear, despair, 

Confusion, self-hatred, consumed

All by the sadness that haunts me

Till the day I die. It is this

Very storm. It will always return

To me. It will always...

Shake the earth beside me...