Creeping madness

Built with grief

Too many tears

I'm afraid of medicating that malady

The source of my internal Nile

A river flow of anxiety

Like swimming in unsafe water

Full of maneaters, and territorial killers

Cataracts and rapids

Or at other times

Like the tide

The helpless feeling

With the pull of the sun

And the moon

A deepening depression

With the passage of years

Life no longer calls to

Or moves me yet

I'm swept up and deprived

Of any notion or illusion of choice

(completed on the first day of March 2025)

Stephen A North is the author of the Dead Tide Series, The Drifter Series of books, and a number of short stories. He is a Florida native, has a BA in English Literature from USF, and is a former Army Reservist.