Becoming Depression

by Karen M. Raymond-Hart

I’m sure I feel too brightly
like a knob turned up too high

despair darker than blue
into that color barely seen
beyond black

pain is all
no contrast exists
from the warmer emotions

my life's blood is endless
it seems
red stream into the future
from the past

and I bleed my pain

yet the wounds are ghostly
to others
who see me as just
sad

can three letters
really
hold a lifetime
an eternity
of pain

sharp and dull
and all the brightness
in between

pain lingers on

as my name becomes mist
and blows away

and I exist as
depression
my identity
forevermore

7/28/03