I know my depression the way I know my own name
something solid
familiar and
impossible to forget
it changes for a time
I go by a nickname or my middle name
but I’m still the same person as before
this is how depression is
my decision to let it out in poetry is my middle name
trying to force myself to socialize
when I’m least able to feel anything is me
going by a nickname with a chosen few
at the core
I am always chemically inclined to
melancholy and numbness
and that’s okay
I’m the same girl I was yesterday
even if you don’t recognize the name I’m using today
my own name [poem]
Larissa Lee 