A cry for help disguised as a cry for help
I drank my coffee in the afternoon,
my metal chair unstable on the stones.
The street was busy, but within the crowd
I saw a man who seemed like no one else.
He wore a suit and looked like thirty-five,
and in that sense he was another clone,
but in his face I saw a funny look.
And then the man began to loudly yell.
"Oh, help! Please help! I am in danger, please!
I think my life itself could be at risk!"
"But what's the matter?" someone asked the man,
"I can't see what your shouting is about."
"It's not a thing you see!" the man then cried,
"My peril is within my very soul:
I feel as if there is no cause for joy,
and all around I see a world of slaves!
I have no friends to talk to anymore.
And frankly I would say that I'm depressed.
Depression is a danger, is it not?
And when we are in fear we cry for help.
So that is why I'm shouting to you all.
What happens next, I couldn't even guess."
Posted Jul 6, 2022, 12:36 AM UTC · edited
I really enjoy the style of this poem. You manage to really set a scene in the first few lines with only a couple of words while if this was a piece in prose the writer could have spent paragraphs describing these things. Some of the most effective words in those first lines are “coffee” (really brings out the sense of taste and smell strongly) the “metal chair” and “stones” (they give the scene a hard feeling). Then with the man yelling you manage to kind of hit all 5 senses there quickly which makes the poem more vivid to me. The subject matter really makes the reader think as well. I think most of us think of cries for help as being somewhat subtle or at least something we’re supposed to look out for in others who might be hiding their depression, but this man just lays it all out there for everyone and causes me to think about how I would deal with the issue of depression head on rather than as something that is hidden away. Great job!