Imagine a Serenade when the Mind is in a Slump

Imagine a Serenade when

  the Mind is in a Slump

Depression in the form of vertigo

Is sickness, mental illness in the shape

Of sucking whirlpools.  It comes in tow

With apathy like quicksand.  It’s not rape

Quite, unwanted, in slow motion.

The suffocation is a prison cell

Located in a trough in the ocean.

It’s an almost open gateway to hell.

Because escape is possible, it’s more

Like Purgatory.  New hope is implied

That treated choice can gesture to a door

When lithium’s uplifting hand’s applied,

Or when the force of plain free will at last

Revives and hammers purpose to the mast.

Phillip Whidden