Depression

Depression Laying dull below me Dead and dark yellow mire Of a sickness I float above Swamp of mist and noisome reek That later in life Would turn my life to drink Between the rolling fumes I often see the glimpses of blue Those unconcerned and unattainable skies Spied through watering eyes Where the wings of birds are so coveted And all the things that fly are so despised I float Unsteady marsh to me bequeathed Its fogs to cloud my vision and all emotion As foot hold to stand before the world Ankle, knee, waist deep to neck I accept as wading normally So often its listless paths I tread I drifting above it Casting me, my shadow of happiness On quicksand’s that cough me up once again To build my homes in dire mounds Where shafts of sun are lit for a time Before the rolling wash pulls me down I float Sickening by its unrepentant broil It breathes with me behind every smile The filthy quag of my childhood Memories, I cannot recollect Spew into my life so far In the roiling welts of stinking black tar There is no state of free Happy has and always eluded me From as far back as I can remember Unsteady marsh to me bequeathed Its fogs to cloud my vision and all emotion As foot hold to stand before the world I float