this thing that i am good at
the product of a fractured mind
mended awkwardly
with gorilla glue, baling wire and Scooby Do bandaids
the rough repairs mostly invisible to you but not to me
not to me
this thing that i am good at
lives in the spaces of that brokenness
the interstices where the parts no longer fit neatly together
the smooth slip of one thought
to the next to the next
in a cascade of certainty
now a faltering slide down a scree-strewn slope
this thing that i am good at--
doesn’t care what speed my thoughts can achieve
or whether I can recall people’s names
or wonder why words regularly elude me
me, the word-smith of the family
no, this thing that i am good at--
it can strike like a kingfisher
breach with the potency of the great blue whale
drag me over a cliff slowly
like molasses in the dead of winter
and the motion is everything until it stops
and then it is nothing
Author Bio:
Patricia Wentzel is a mental health advocate for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). She started writing poetry in late 2014 and it played a central role in her recovery from a severe episode of Bipolar Disorder. Her writing has been nurtured by the Sacramento Prose and Poetry Meetup, the Women’s Wisdom Art Program and many of the poets who call the Sacramento Poetry Center home. She has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Neutrons Protons, The Light Ekphrastic, Sacramento Voices Anthology and others.
the product of a fractured mind
mended awkwardly
with gorilla glue, baling wire and Scooby Do bandaids
the rough repairs mostly invisible to you but not to me
not to me
this thing that i am good at
lives in the spaces of that brokenness
the interstices where the parts no longer fit neatly together
the smooth slip of one thought
to the next to the next
in a cascade of certainty
now a faltering slide down a scree-strewn slope
this thing that i am good at--
doesn’t care what speed my thoughts can achieve
or whether I can recall people’s names
or wonder why words regularly elude me
me, the word-smith of the family
no, this thing that i am good at--
it can strike like a kingfisher
breach with the potency of the great blue whale
drag me over a cliff slowly
like molasses in the dead of winter
and the motion is everything until it stops
and then it is nothing
Author Bio:
Patricia Wentzel is a mental health advocate for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). She started writing poetry in late 2014 and it played a central role in her recovery from a severe episode of Bipolar Disorder. Her writing has been nurtured by the Sacramento Prose and Poetry Meetup, the Women’s Wisdom Art Program and many of the poets who call the Sacramento Poetry Center home. She has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Neutrons Protons, The Light Ekphrastic, Sacramento Voices Anthology and others.
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