Off to my shift at the mirage
Its feigned oasis has been dry since my arrival
And looks like it always was
The thirsty come to drink
Fistfuls of sand falling from cupped hands
Some think it a ruse
That we hoard what’s left for ourselves
Behind locked doors and hidden closets
That a lack of persuasion is all that bars them from paradise
Others trudge along, futility in their steps
Aware that if paradise existed
It has been scorched irreparably
Yet we continue
When I feel paralyzed and can't get out of bed,
I remember they're only fears that live inside my head.
So I get up and dress to feel my best
and ultimately chase away the rest.
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
You spent your birthday in a psych ward
For trying to get out
Now twice, on your record
What is it you’re without?
I walk into my mom’s room, filled with fear,
As nausea is bubbling in my core.
I say nothing, it’s already clear;
I took a b’ttle of pills just like before.
Tears fall from my eyes and drip from my chin,
As screaming insults fall from my mom’s lips.
She yells, “Get in the car,” and the pr’cess begins.
She cont’nues to yell like she’s read’ng a script.
She says she’s not staying for this bullsh’t this time.
With that, she left—no “I love you,” no goodbye.
I’d never felt more alone in my life.
In the weeks that followed, I did nothing but cry.
In those three weeks, I only felt like a problem,
Reminding me, my own mom left me at rock bottom.
fly'in in were gonna take note's
no appointment madman's order's
no way no caucas no way just order's
strait from the heart
wen't out from start to carcass conscience
for the night
a prayer for those in need of help
a prayer some light
a dinner plate of horror
a prayer for oppressor to stop
a prayer for people hurting
a prayer for people healing
a path with no enemy's on it
a good night
for bad plan's to go stale
and 1860 express lucid note's to fail
Nerve chemical is a toxic chemical..
It is colourless and odorless..
It dissolves in water..
It can be delivered in food..
It can be injected to cause plegia..
It causes paraplegia and quadriplegia.
Supari killers use it as silent weapon.
Note.Stay away from Psych Rehab.....
These walls, crumbling through time.
seeing old metal beds, stained mattresses,
broken sinks and toilets, rusted old medical supplies and a vacant morgue.
I'm walking through a dark place where pain was inflicted,
on patients to non existing ailments.
Lobotomies, electroshock, meds that these doctors and nurses,
thought would cure such simple illnesses.
The flickering florescent lights above my head.
showing me graffiti on the surface,
seeing a place from the past runs,
chills down my spine.
Thinking of the people who felt lost,
hurt, and neglected.
How they were mistreated or discarded.
To still hear the moans and groans echo through the halls.
The suicides', the padded rooms and the unmarked graves,
bring sorrow to my heart.
Those past years of being treated as nothing but as test dummies.
Those old stories of the survivors as they remember their time here.
As if they lived through the pain just yesterday.
Now the hospitals lay empty.
As the ghosts of victims still haunt these halls.
I will visit them one day and explore through these deserted rooms.
Wandering around the earth saying you love me? What do you know of love..,
If I thought you knew anything of love I would've stayed..
yes, there beside you in that little house, in that little bed.
Not just locked away inside that thick head.
(I can't tell her she is only a figment)
Well., easy enough to talk to a shadow, you cast one too. Change the radio station to your oldies, but don't see me, don't even listen.
Remember that day you walked me to my Psych 101 class?
You didn't even try, you didn't reach for my hand, and now I don't care.
(I can't tell her she is only a figment)
There are codes in all of life, I built mine around them. To get past my past, trying to tell you it. I was in mortal combat with depression. You never knew how dark those days could get. Always smiling; handing me a crummy flower. You never had any codes, no morals, only music. Yet you dare to think you love me.
(I can't bear to tell her she is only a figment)
If I thought you knew anything of love I would've stayed.
Yes, there beside you in that little house, in that little bed.
Not just locked away inside that thick head.
How does it feel to be confined to a bed
Alone in a psych ward with the voices in your head
Your actions done and now you're here
How does it feel to be laying here
The lives you've destroyed but still deny
You don't fool me; An eye for an eye
Karma has a way of coming back around
Now it's your turn and you've been found
Losing the battle; your little one lost
They protect her from you at all costs
The State came in and took her away
With you no more; not allowed to stay
Your home and job is a thing of the past
Your lying and deceit took them at last
Your family no longer behind your front door
The life you had is no more
You dug your own grave all on your own
help from no one; you did it alone
What goes around comes around they say
And karma made sure; you're beginning to pay
Author: Kristin Bordelon
PSYCH UP
Hours of wasted yesterdays
Haphazardly hops in my head
In a ugly pretty fashion
As though it were some minutes past
All my fore-time murderers
In my inner eyes appear
Like it does on chippy screen
Loneliness pulls the trigger
Of the lurking memories
Tick-tacky natural eraser becomes helpless
Dawn frowns and twilight mourns
The demise of their elder brother
Long sitting on the fence
Drenched my solo silk in conical aqua
Inside too warm, outside too cold
I had to call the skull into play
The chest couldn’t get along easily
Because of its familiarity with the deceptive lens
The trio combo seems impossible
Until the latter plays second fiddle
Then the weighty body sets off
Slowly it paced
Amidst myriad of lieing lizards
All waiting to swallow my innocent ant
Wisely did it fly with its peers
And put my progress hunters in turbulent sea
They aimlessly ran helter skelter
Then I chuckled, smiled and laughed.
YEMI AFO
Jack had to psych up
Just to go hike up
That hill with that Jill
Who was such a pill,
So he felt that tyke up!
(Thanks to Andrew "Dice" Clay)
These walls don’t hold up
to the pain placed inside
looking for hope and futures
but the caring and trust collide.
Memories fold at the sight
of the cross with winding snakes
bogged is the mind at rest
where the people are at stake.
Lithium drives home the thought
of how easy it all is
to live out a fantasy of two worlds
in which one will have to give.
Fragile we are to those who know best
but strong to those who don’t
your thoughts are put down with ink
in hopes no one sees what you wrote.
Please don’t judge by what you see
or even what you hear
when you walk inside these four walls
it will all be very clear.
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