Poetry

Double Negative

Making the best with what you’ve got — surviving mental illness

Photo by Alexandru Acea on Unsplash

In search of another negative
so I can double-down
Adding plus
to minus
subtracts from all around

So I paint the town with red things
Splash red on my red stack
More coats applied
The blood has dried
Now my ledger’s turning black

Like magnets drawn together
the dark calls to the dark
The beckoning
A reckoning
They touch — and then — a spark!

Subtraction inside calling
It has the same to say
It whispers “still”
It wants my will
It always takes away

I feel the knots get tighter
They’re strangling the host
They coalesce
Unwelcome guests
These specters of a ghost

I’ve learned to look right through them
Spotting minuses around
Attractions
and…