Life is a twisted dream,
A series of colorful scenes.
Some seasons go by with the sun shining in sky,
Beautiful and warm, encouraging me on.
Other times I linger in the darkest night,
No stars to guide me, no moon in sight.
No hand to hold as I stumble along,
A fight in my mind of what I do wrong,
A constant reminder that I am alone.
The panic, the doubt, the unreasonable disease,
That drags me down and buckles my knees.
All the medication in the world cannot fix me.
I grieve the person I am left to be;
The shame and frustration smothers me.
Covers a life in shadows,
Crying tears of fear, a melody
Colored by doubts, mourning
Common times when healthy and strong
Calm days, taken for granted
Considered normal, before normal
Corroded beneath a deadly disease
Violent outburst
At variable lengths of time
Never knowing when it will happen
Insanity reaches out
Damages
Destroys
Diminishes happiness
In living
Life is like
Walking on brittle eggshells
Afraid they'll make a sound
Then crack and snap
Love?
Can it conquer
Insanity?
2025.05.25
Dementia, how cruel you were,
You stole my mother long
Before her final breath.
You placed upon her
An incurable silence,
A sickness she herself
Could never truly understand.
Her body remained with us,
For loving hands to hold,
For family to cherish and cradle,
Yet little by little,
You carried pieces of her away, over decades.
You spared her physical pain,
But left her family
To bear the sorrow,
To witness the slow fading
Of someone deeply loved.
Still, she lives on
Through her children,
Grandchildren and
Great-grandchildren,
And through every soul
Who proudly called her family
Thank you and bye-bye.
Mummy.
Your steps forgot their way,
your strength forgot its name.
But love refused to sway
as Parkinson's laid claim.
I lost you day by day,
and miss you just the same.
My neurological needs spread like a flea, sapping my strength, sucking my blood like a relentless disease.
Creating chaos, disorder this man has no order where which his life goes.
God only knows my hope's a fragile border that turns barren and cold.
Where once was order, now shadows arise.
As harmony fades and the light slowly drains where no life remains.
How did all this begin
How did this illness start
When I was being torn to pieces
Or when I was completely ripped
apart
Everyday being consumed with intense unrelenting sadness
Not understanding why pushed me
further into madness
As my mental health continued to
quickly decline
Dark clouds rolled in the sun just
wouldn’t shine
These overpowering emotions I just
couldn’t control
Every bit of hope I once had they had
entirely stole
Emotional overload was bursting out
at the seams
The deafening sound of my own
internal tortured screams
Overwhelmed broken and knocked
down to my knees
This depression of mine will surely be
my fatal disease
starting
with learning
to spell
it correctly
then hearing
the chaos of sound
and voices
in the song
of silence
and then
waking up
on the wrong side
of the world
Cancer carves fear on the soul
Marking the life in black grief, dread
Words like hope, the cancer stole
But we’re holding onto Him by a thread
Cancer inscribes a panic into life,
Distress, so anxious and apprehensive
Words like faith, might end each strife
Oh, this disease puts me on the defensive
Cancer writes worry through each dream
Darkening the spirit with heartbreak
It feels so terrifying – I could just scream!
God surely knows all that is at stake
Cancer engraves tears into the believer
Silencing the prayers so softly spoken
God will soon destroy this dark deceiver
And quiet the heart who has been broken!
Cancer pens heartbreak in my prayer
While I reach for the light in the shadows
Knowing, deep down, He is always there
While I can’t understand, He always knows
Cancer marks the heart with tears
Pouring salt into the wounds – such grief
But God blesses away all the fears
With His gentle spirit, oh such sweet relief
In my mind, she still survives
The smallest hand, I held on tight
Not tight enough – this memory revives
The moment when she left the fight
A fight between her and a dark disease
The story is so old – but I must tell it
It’s so long past, but I fall to my knees
Praying for relief – yes, I’ll definitely admit…
My heart still beats when I hear her name
Flooded with a feeling, such a deep pain
Still blaming, the shame– oh, nothing is the same
She haunts my heart so I’m almost insane
pestilence and disease
leprosy
black plague
covid 19
suffering and death
souls heading to heaven in mass quantities
vampires and freeway car pile-ups have done less damage
Two of the most profitable enterprises of mankind:
War and disease (natural or otherwise).
These are what drive politics and policies.
That's why wars will forever be.
Why cures for disease are all but extinct.
Another enterprise has arrived: population control.
See numbers one and two above for further clarity.
"Bpd"
My legs are falling off
Ripping from my body
My eyes are melting
"ADHD"
My head
It will explode
Don't you see?
"Manic Depressive, Manic Episodes?"
This disease it is me
It laughs it shrieks
My blood vessels have branded
Into themselves
Into my soul
It's Memory
"Bipolar."
"Mood swings. Anxiety. Try this medication please"
Straight jacket laugh
Writhe against my restraints
I have buried
That girl
In the ashes of yesterday
Still
The cage is iron not steel
Strong enough
Weak enough
I will never heal
Paranoia, a sly stealthy disease
Fells men as tall and as massive as trees
Tiny fears in their minds
Unravel, leave behind
The rattle of what was once a fresh breeze
He looked at me, eyes dull and cold,
“What the hell are you doing here?”
And just like that-my heart caved in,
Shattered by the words I feared.
I had come with love in trembling hands,
A daughter needing something small-
Just a soft goodbye, a crack of light,
But he built another wall.
I stood there stunned, not sure to speak,
Not sure if he even saw
The child behind my grown-up face
Still reaching through the flaw.
I wanted to scream, I’m your daughter,
I’m here because I care,
But his voice was sharp, and full of fire,
And none of that was there.
I tried to make sense of his anger,
Was it pain that made him blind?
Was it cancer eating through his words,
Or the damage in his mind?
Cirrhosis, Hep C, too many wounds-
They stole the man I knew.
And maybe somewhere deep inside,
He missed me coming through.
But all I have are those last words,
They echo in my chest-
Not “I love you,” not “thank you,”
Not even “I wish you the best.”
And still I wonder, every night-
If he’d been without his disease-
Would he have instead changed
His final words to me?
Sub Categories
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.