When the birdsong gets wrapped around the spools
and the low-loader carrying black paint overturns on the motorway.
The golfing trousers go into mourning.
As Wagner reads the weather forecast and Schopenhauer gives us ‘Thought of The Day’ on the radio, I try to think of other ways to describe depression.
It’s not easy.
We used to make jokes about listening to ‘Songs of Love and Hate’ in our bedsits.
While desperate teens were being stretchered out to waiting ambulances in the dead of night.
“He took an overdose of Leonard Cohen lyrics – God help him, he never even made it to past side one.”
Describing Depression? Solitary walks with a backpack full of broken dreams and a Dear John letter… signed with a tear?
You can gamble away wretched city nights and make for the moorland and Downs, but the bear pit awaits our saddest thoughts, and we can’t escape the Black Dog snapping at our heels.
Staying home is like standing in quick drying cement.
Dismantle the circus – throw the light switches on the Fair. Unplug the constellation of stars above earth.
Dunk a broken smile in a fancy coffee. Break bread easily like promises we made to be ‘together forever.’
I could fall asleep thinking of ways to describe depression.
As night tramples day and day bludgeons
night underfoot… It’s inevitable they say!
I know heading out on the Highway leads to a cul-de-sac, and the band sounds like ‘Joy Division at Preston’ with every gig, and I’ve played the Blues as all hope like winter trains have been cancelled due to heavy snow on tracks.
Black clouds gather at the respray shop, but the shutters are down for the day.
I guess it will rain all day just like usual.
The best way to describe depression is not to.
Think of something nice instead.
There’s always light at the end of the tunnel they say – a light like a beckoning finger drawing us into day – soothing us with words as soft as marshmallows.
and mopping our fevered brow with a pink blancmange.
It could be worse, they say in Tokyo as the office sways and the furniture slides across the room.
Best way to describe depression?
Never mind the sun has just come out. ??
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Malcolm Paul
Picture Nick Victor
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