Thursday 10 October 2019

#One in Four - A Poem for Mental Health Day


One in Four

The statistics are one in four
Sooner or later t'will come knock, knock, knocking at the door
(Yes, rhyming is what mental folks do!)
When they are in a bit of a stew
And not bob, bob, bobbing along

Please take the time to become acquainted
With those imbued with a drone in the head
Bone memories
Of things done or things said
(Some of them, might very nearly be dead)

What it is, and what it isn't
So many assumptions
And supposes
Before the schism splits
One in four

Sometimes you only find out the extent of it,
In the papers
Sometimes you're beguiled by the smiles
I'd never have guessed!
But one in four

Shame, conditioning, and all the rest,
Keep smiles laid
On faces dressed in Sunday best
That, behind closed doors crumple
Like innards sucked from skin

They are the clowns
Dressed up but feeling down
Their eyes fixated, hearts frustrated,
Racing along, sweaty handed,
Sometimes, community has disbanded

Pupils wide from prescriptions
Memory trains on brains, tracing, tracing
Tracking this way and that
Stained from abuse and misuse
Yes, one in four

Have a heart,
Yes, you have one
For the smiling ones,
Who struggle to keep the inside
From getting out

Help them
To banish the ghosts
That have hurt them the most
And the ones that mock and scorn
In the land of the living
The ugly red-handed that just keep on giving

Have a care
In this godless place
For members of the human race
Who don't fit in with
How you think they should 

These one in four

They are not like you?
But there is always a tipping point
Even for you
What grief lies in store
For the heartless ones?

When suffering comes
You will know the score
One in four
Is that a knock at the door?