mental health poems

Gotta

Things haven’t been
Going too well lately
In our little town.
Sure, we’re still proud of
Where we’ve been and
Who we are but
Times are tough,
You gotta do what
You gotta do.

Yesterday the senior center
Shut down, tomorrow the
Food pantry closes its doors,
A week ago the high school
Told kids to share books,
Music and art programs
Disappeared years ago.
Tough choices,
It’s gotta be done.

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Reality

He’s a family man,
Working hard to provide
For his beloved wife and
Children, getting up each
Morning hoping this will
Be the day that his boss
Stops shouting at him or
Making wisecracks at his
Expense, or cutting his hours.

During the meager standing-up
Break that passes for lunch
At his workplace,
He overhears someone talking
About social justice,
Which makes his blood boil.
I fight for what’s mine,
I don’t rely on anybody else,
Hard work leads to success.

Lost in the outburst are
The many hours he’s
Worked off the clock,
The complete lack of flexibility
And benefits, the absence of
Opportunities to move up,
But none of that matters,
He fights for his earnest
Misapprehension of reality.

Movers and Shakers

How easily he forgets
That success is very often
Not the result of pluck,
Or toil, or self-determination.

Talking to a group of colleagues
In an opulent board room,
The grind of the outside world
Doesn’t show its gnarled face.

Smug in their affluence,
Brash movers and shakers,
Out on the streets but
For the whim of fortune.

Alternate Reality

A thoughtful discussion about
An appalling transgression.
He stands up and offers
A few purposeful words
Reflecting a near-total
Lack of empathy or
Understanding of the
Plight of others.
In his mind,
All wrongdoing is justified
When one utters the words
Personal responsibility.
A collective hushed sigh
From an audience that knows
He doesn’t get it and,
Sadly, never might.
The near impossibility of
Teaching the indoctrinated,
So sure are they of
An alternate reality.

Legacy

Entrenched legacy of abuse,
Dereliction of decency.
Competitive advantage
Extracted through
Ruthless exploitation of
Human beings.
Contemptible mindset,
Profit at any cost—
By any means.
An entire culture
Established to use people,
Proudly extolled,
Fiercely defended
Misconduct.

One Stroke of a Pen

With one stroke of a pen,
And a clueless
Self-satisfied smile,
He continues his
Sadistic march
Toward making sure
Millions of people
Can’t afford health care.

Advantages

If you’ve grown up with a
Certain set of advantages
It’s natural to not be aware of them,
After all, they were always there,
You could just enjoy what they
Did for you without worrying about why,
Or whether it was fair or not that
They weren’t available to others.
For your fellow human beings
Without those advantages,
The world is a very different place,
One where they may not have access to
The things you did, where they have
To work more to succeed less or
Live under an intractable cloud
Threatening to wash away their dreams.
For those in shadow,
The light looks very different.

A Heart Drained

Something must have
Happened to close his mind,
Rendering him unable to
Understand suffering.

Innocence and hope
Dashed at a vulnerable age,
When life should
Be rosy.

A heart drained of its
Ability to feel,
Vitriol replacing
Kindness.

Disasters

As disasters both
Natural and man-made
Tear at the landscape,
One wonders whether
They still adhere to their
Premise that charities can
Take care of everything,
Even though it’s nonsensical to
Believe that people would give
Billions upon billions,
Over and over,
To help those ravaged by misfortune,
But there’s no way to
Talk them out of their misguided
Fantasies rooted in pessimistic
Dogma rather than reality.