The Other Side Poem by Cindy Thacher

Every morning I wake and see
people and ponder their normalcy,
coming or going, all seem to know
a felicitous face to bestow.

Some smile, some frown, most stare ahead
glancing side to side as if they dread
the secrets they're hiding behind
while the road to life slowly unwinds.

On my scaffold of emotions
demons are dancing in slow motion
from the other side, looking in
as if I had never been.

I see no light, empty spaces,
only people with glossy faces,
the frontal lobes of my withered brain
are tethered by needless chains.

I feel alone, no one but me
out on a foggy, misty sea,
paralyzed with mortal fear
yearning for the end without a tear.

My bed becomes my temporal nest
when neurons take a needed rest,
my underground from the cruel shame
that others quarrel is fair game.

When will people understand
this burden was never planned?
When will the truth set us free
and spare the family a tragedy?