A Monster2 min read

Reading Time: 2 minutes

^{This 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.