Today’s word prompt is ‘skerry,’ a small rocky island, weathered and sharp, standing stubbornly against the sea.
The imagery of the skerry felt deeply personal as I reflected on my experience living with bipolar disorder. Much like a skerry amidst the tide, resilience can feel distant or fragile—yet it endures, even against the relentless waves of chaos and calm.
This poem captures the unyielding cycles of bipolar disorder, where calm shifts to chaos and back again in an endless, turbulent rhythm.
Thoughts scattered,
like gulls in the wind.
A hundred voices rising—
clamorous, demanding, alive.
Too much,
too much—too much!
Still, I’m never enough.
The skerry hums,
electric beneath my fingertips.
Surging tide.
Unstoppable!
I can soar above it all,
or shatter trying.
Calm to chaos!
Chaos to calm—
an endless sea of madness.
The skerry feels far away,
slipping from my grasp.
Waves,
pull me under.
Fast, then slow.
Silence, swallows me whole.
I sink,
rushing to hit bottom.
The tide drags me back again—
not mercy, just motion.
An endless sea of madness.
(c) Eric Montgomery
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