The Elephant in the Room

There’s an elephant in the room
No one will mention it
He sits with ears flapping about
And makes us all look twits
For each one knows he”s there
But dare not say a word
In case of waking up the beast
Or finding there’s a herd
Of pachyderms instead of just
This single elephant
Like opening a can of worms
What a predicament!

So Dumbo sits there, never moves
In the way of everyone
For to disrupt this elephant
May bring an end to fun
Or would it rather clear a space
In which to live and breathe
If this mammoth weren’t in the way
So much could be achieved
And life might be a tad better
Freed up to simply be
Happy, content, and unimpinged
In fact much more healthy

Elephant in the Room

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Time To Change

It rapes the kindest soul
Tampering with truth
Ripping at the heart of reality
Laced in fear
Deluded
Lost
In a miasma of confusion
That depletes relationships
Tears apart self
Deprives the spirit
As a mask on the world
A cloak of psychosis
Where many are too afraid
To ask for help
In a world where stigma
Still wears a thorny crown
And shackles lives
In a mantra of lies
Under the guise of ignorance
Yet still how I pray
That chinks of light
Will break through these clouds
These fumes of misunderstanding
This fog of discrimination
Bias. Prejudice.
So that change will come
And come soon
For now is the time
Time to change
Now!

The Mirage In The Mist

Can you hear them? Can you see them?
The people in his head
That persecute his every move
And haunt the road he treads

Illusions in neural pathways
Apparitions of his mind
The ignis fatuus that burns
So bright he swears you’re blind

Can you gain the insights he believes
He has much like a gift
Yet which evade your reckoning
In stark paradigm shifts

For though to him these things are real
In your reality
They’re figments of imaginings
That you and I can’t see

But does that support or uphold
Him on this path he leads
Abused by all who laugh and mock
As slowly his heart bleeds

And is it right we judge and scorn
This man whom God has made
Leaving him in his wilderness
Confused; alone; afraid?

For though his thoughts seem abstract and
Beyond perceptual grasp
Let’s more so offer compassion
Give him a hand to clasp

Let’s see the man behind the mask
The person who exists
And with cognisance burn away
The mirage in the mist

  

Stigma

Don’t patronise. Don’t speak down to
Don’t snub or deign to be
All condescending. Tossing crumbs
Treating her so badly
Because ‘you’ do not think she is
Like you in any way
Or cos she simply acts and thinks
Differently per se

For how she looks, how she behaves
Is really no excuse
For you to bully her so much
And give her your abuse
For in this world of many sorts
Your judgement and your curse
Serves only to twist in a knife
And turn things bad to worse

So instead celebrate each one
Enjoy diversity
And do not mock or jeer at those
With disabilities.
And understand the plight of those
Who suffer stigma too
From mental illness for it could
So easily be you

Shackled Lives

Another look at the stigma of mental health leading up to World Mental Health Day on 10 October and the reality that we are still locking the mentally ill away – then behind closed doors; now with labels and the stigma that prevails. Time for change

Once lives locked behind bars
Constrained by irons and jacket
Restricted by fear and doctrine
Stereotyped as mad
Alienated by society

Yet now as wards lies desolate
Lives are still shackled
And men grapple in clichéd fear
Petrified by the diversity of mind
Assigning labels in the place of bars

Vincent van Gogh [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Mental Health (Haiku)

Then all locked away
Folk institutionalized
Lost forever more

Now the bars are gone
Yet still lives are held hostage
By social stigma

We call that progress!
Yet what is the difference?
Time for real change now!

Armand Gautier [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons