Locked Up

These people
Have no idea
How it is to be
Trapped in your own mind.

How cloudy your vision is
That you would not see the EXIT sign
Even if were shining NEON.
Of course, most of the time,
The signs are tiny
And nondescript,
Buried under dark clouds
And mustiness that clog up your mind.

“Toughen up,” friends say.
“Shake it off.”
Like your mind is a wet dog.
And the worst part is,
They only mean well.

“There’s nothing neurologically wrong,” the doctors say.
“It’s all psychological.”
That’s doctor speak for,
“It’s all in your head.”

If I FORGET about how trapped I am,

Will I magically become untrapped?

Someone, give me the magic potion
To untrap my mind.

I’ve taken so many magic potions
I cannot even remember
The magic has faded, the novelty gone.
They are no magic potions;
They only make me numb.

What is it that they say?
“It’s better to have feelings than not have them at all?”

People see me in disheveled hair and dark face
And sniff and look away.

Why won’t you praise me
For dragging myself out of bed?

You have no idea how much I wish
I could walk away from my me, too.

But you see, I cannot leave,
I am trapped in my mind.
And it is getting smaller and smaller
Suffocating me.

Who is going to save me
When they dismiss my pain
“It’s all in your head- there’s nothing I can do for you.”

I walk freely through the world,
And yet here I am,
Prisoner to my own mind,
Locked up by my brain.