2 Poems

Manic Episode

What does it feel like?

The couch is red and on fire

Swallowing me whole

It feels like my brain is static

TV static Radio static Static

Loud and incoherent

inconvenient 

It feels like I am Macbeth

And Malcolm’s army is closing in.

And Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane.

I am ripped in half

And there are two whole me’s.

One of Cinderblock

And one of Air.

They are trapped underwater

Air is trying to reach the surface

But how can they when Cinderblock grips their ankles

Pulling them deeper and deeper

Further from breathing.

Cinderblock is Vile

They whisper vile things to Air

We’re draining

Don’t talk

People don’t like you

Who the hell would listen to you in their right mind.

You are afraid Because you know I’m right.

Air is no orator.

Air has not the rhetoric to argue the logos of Cinderblock

Air hasn’t been trained in the Roman Senate yet

They are helpless.

They are right

Too right

And I have nothing to fight them

A war is fought in my brain

Cinderblock is drowning Air

And beating them and kicking them

Until Cinderblock is tired

Then it stops

And we go to bed

A warrior who cannot fight.

When I wake 

my muscles are sore.

Plastic Bag Volcano

Kids always do those damn baking soda And vinegar volcanoes at science fairs.

We learn the science of volcanoes in school

And Still And Still And Still

They insist on making a baking soda And vinegar volcano.

Volcanoes don’t act like that.

You don’t add something to it to make it go off.

Volcanoes Go off because

The pressure builds

and build and builds and builds

And eventually they cannot take it anymore

Being squished and squeezed from all directions 

And then they blow

And force their rage in all directions

It is much more like

Squeezing a closed plastic bag

Until it pops

It is much more like

Closing yourself off and

Experiencing life

Heartache rejection loss anger depression mania anxiety

All coming from a million sources

And one day you

And force your fiery rage in all directions

And then you close yourself up again

Lie dormant for a while

Allowing the pressure to build again

To cause mass casualties

Again

And this goes on in an unpredictable cycle

Until we die.

About the Author

Lauren Amariti is in their third year at Arcadia University studying English with a concentration in creative writing.