Read Poem: Confined Mentality, by Kristina Johnson

Confined by illness, chained and bound,
a doctor’s diagnosis hunts me down,
tearing my soul apart,
“Mentally Unstable” stamped on every chart.
Shrouded in shame, drowning in sorrow,
lacking and feeling hollow,
yearning for another’s name,
desiring nothing more than to be sane.
An echo of emptiness in my soul,
never feeling worthy or whole,
the flux of emotional notoriety,
incompatible with the norm of society.
Shattered by this stigma,
of turbulent behavior,
scrutinized and compared,
“Bipolar,” is the label I wear.
This identifying disorder,
seeks to pigeonhole me,
of that which no one can see,
concealing the truth, obscuring the real me.