A Parasite Called Sadness
Skylar Jones
It spreads slowly at first,
Always slow in the start,
Like a sunrise in reverse.
Only darker, without colour.
All it takes is one drop.
One drop to poison the well,
That is your entire being.
It works when you blink.
When you are asleep.
When you are not looking.
That’s why it’s so surprising,
When you realize it has control.
Pictures of the past you
Have become foreign.
You let yourself abandon friends.
Then ostracized yourself from family.
Those smiles are a language
You are no longer fluent in.
Looking in the mirror, not
Understanding how a stranger
Could have your face.
It’s finally become you.
Your hands aren’t your hands.
Your eyes don’t look familiar.
You are the reason the sadness
Was let in to begin with, remember?
You felt the first sting it made.
Felt the warmth from the infection
And did nothing to stop it’s tendrils
Intertwining throughout your nerves.
So that means your brain
is still your brain.
Only different.
Only changed.
Only not you.
And no matter how hard you try
You will never go back
To the person you were before
You became a host.
Skylar Jones is a junior attending UNCG and majoring in psychology. Her works delve into heartbreak, depression and other troubling and sometimes eerie topics. She hopes that her words can evoke powerful emotion.
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