A Monster2 min read
Reading Time: 2 minutesThis evocative poem was penned in response to a ‘Think With Owliver‘ cohort-session during which our young participants deliberated on Owliver’s podcast episode that dealt with the global mental health crisis. To listen to the podcast head to the bottom of the page.
Mannat Budhiraja
Class 7
Delhi Public School, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi
A monster preys in the dark
It lurks at a distant corner of my brain.
Bites, a swirl of shadows
Preying on what I’m feeling
Anxiety, amplifies it a thousand times more
Worries and fears,
Nightmares
What ifs
Tears
Do not fade
They remain
Get worse as the monster preys on them
Fear, spreads through me
More than usual
Can’t see the light
In my brain
Monster shuts it off
Can’t see
Surrounded by a gaping void
Dark all around
Emotions echo in the chasm
Like bits of broken glass
Now I’m sad
Now I can’t seem to smile
Now I don’t care
Now I mumble
Now I fear
Now it hurts
Hurts without hurting physically,
Bleeds without crimson.
But it’s pain even though you can’t see it
It’s pain even though you can’t fix it with a bad-aid and an antiseptic
It’s still agony
It still hurts
All of it because of that monster
The monster whose name is-
Mental Health problems.
Mental Health problems that we don’t know about
Mental Health problems that we don’t think about
That 59.4%of our population
Has the wrong assumptions about
That can’t just be treated by medication.
And yet
Most of us are unaware
Knowledge is power
And yet we have no knowledge
No power
How do we stand up to this enemy
We must change
We can change
We can stop assuming that every person who goes to a mental health professional for help is mad
We can educate
Change
We must
Or else
We will lie wounded on the battlefield,
See this invisible enemy towering above us,
And face the bitter agony of defeat.
