The Black Blight Poem by bryan wallace

If you need to ask
What's wrong with me,
Then you wouldn't understand.
It's not as simple as saying
'Why not snap out of it, and
Pull yourself together man.'
Of course there are children
Starving, much worse off than me.
I am well aware of that -
I have compassion too you know.
I'm sure that you have days
Where you feel down as well.

But to feel completely over-powered
By the black-blanket cloud
That hovers over my head,
Engulfing me in eternal darkness,
Cutting off the sun -
Those life-giving rays of light.

To be seeing only darkness -
Alone and bereft of hope.
Friends and family -
Critical and judgemental -
Telling me what I should do
Without listening to why I can't.

Feeling miss-understood and unsupported,
I know that you mean well.
But I cannot always see that,
In the pitch-black darkness
Of eternal hopelessness and emptiness
While self-sabotaging and poisoning
My own mind from within -
With negative and unproductive thoughts.
So please accept my sincere apologies
If you feel I was rude and selfish.

You think that I am crazy,
I get shunned by society, you tell me
That I have no reasons -
To feel down and depressed.
I can assure you, sincerely,
It's not my choice, to wallow
In self-inflicted misery.
I don't want to be the butt of your jokes.
I can definitely do without
Your self-superior judgement.
I want to be happy too, you know.

All I want you to do is to listen,
Listen to me without judgement,
And not to tell me
To snap out of it,
And pull myself together.
Don't you think that I would if I could?

I am not stupid
Though you think that I am crazy.
I am not a danger to society,
Nor do I need to be put in a lunatic asylum.
I'm just a normal human being
Plagued by an illness -
This black blight that they call depression.