Sometimes I Call Myself

A Poem by Sarah McFadden

About recovery

Sometimes I call myself shipwreck,
Suddenly static, stagnant,
Somehow less than a person, a fragment
And everything moves in slow motion.

Sometimes I call myself abandoned building,
Viciously vacant, vapid
My mind is cloudy, heartbeat rapid,
And it all gets too quiet.

Sometimes I call myself time bomb,
Terrifyingly tameless, thinning,
My hands are trembling, my world is spinning,
And I am growing afraid of my own mind.

Sometimes I call myself human,
Halfway happy, healing,
My heart is sealing, true identity revealing,
And I have learned to call myself....better.