A note for a friend ...........

Lying in bed
I can feel the darkness
ebbing around me
feeling its' closeness
the way it blankets and protects .....
sinking into its' safety
I unzip my chest ....
rescuing the battered and bruised heart
from within .....
stroking it tenderly
I feel the pain of being kicked to the curb,
cut from the pack, so to say ......
holding it in my hands
and I watch it pulsate in place ....
feeling the raw emotion
as it eeks out its sorrow ......
feeling all of the negativity
slowly ooze from within ........
I watch in the glow of its' light
as one single drop
of the darkest, deepest red blood
forms into a single tear
and I know ........
that I will be all right
for I have the darkness to protect me
and the light will come in the morning
and I will dance in my brilliance of life and colour .........
but what of the man
that lives in the darkness ........
chained to the coldness and the solitude
and his own living hell ......
the one who slams the door on love and hope
preferring to live in his own private hole,
dank, cold and unforgiving .......
glimpses of life as it could be,
smothered and distorted by maniacal visions .......
but afraid to admit
that he is infallible
that he can not do it alone .........
crying in his sleep
when he is not able to turn his emotion chip off
the uber wolf inside at peace .........
but only for the moment .......
never knowing when he might once again
raise his ugly head
and devour and rip to shreds
all that lie in his path ..........

and my heart bleeds
for the man that could be .........
with a final caress,
a single tear
I replace the battered heart
deep within the protective chest .....
zip her back up
and watch as the light streaks back through my window ........

Mental health is such a wide open field .....
I hope and I pray that someday,
somewhere,
hopefully every where
the stigma will no longer have importance
and people will seek
the medical help that they need
rather than try and hide .......
and realize that it is ok to seek intervention
and that with todays medications
there is hope .......
the demons can be laid to rest ........
I hope ...........
I really do hope ...........

with love and respect .....
L