Dear Depression,

Come tonight, please let me be. I am hollow, & your fingernails have scraped my soul
leaving only the skin hanging limply on my bones as evidence
that a partial

man exists. You’ve shaped me into something that death rejected. Remember
at 19 you fed me sleeping pills? I tried to die but got slapped awake by mistake. You
made me witness

the pain on my mother’s face & wrote her thoughts that she failed in the lesson-giving she
gave to me, lovingly. I try to sleep to escape you. Once my eyes close I become
awakened in dream

that death is my reflection. I get shot & stabbed & chased by a tempting emotion,
explaining that if I get caught, I will be fed to six-feet of earth. So, I run. I run
into a depth

of black crevices. Where twin-headed monsters ache if not nailing fear across mortal’s
eyes. My eyes are black. I shake like a rumbling thunder-scream, & use
cactus quilts for warmth. You’ve made

me see that imperfections are the entities of life that my emotions are focused on.
Please, leave me to live. In return, when I have a family of my own, I won’t mention
the disasters that you’ve handed me.

felino