The following poem was selected as one of the winners of this year’s Refuat Hanefesh Creative Expression Contest. Age group: high school.

Message from the author: Trapped is a poem discussing the feelings of depression one faces and how one feels trapped within themselves

Barely Breathing: suffocation
A silent stone in jail
They won’t put me on probation
I am lying here alone

I didn’t pick prison
I’m locked behind its doors
It’s more than just depression
It’s feeling like I can’t go on anymore

They are all saying I incarcerated myself
I let it lock me away for life,
I didn’t choose my mental health
I won’t die behind their lies

My perception has narrowed
To the point where I can’t see
All my happiness is borrowed
It seems I won’t ever break free

What am I surviving for?
All I have are these four walls
Everything’s beyond the door
And I don’t have the key

I do all I can
I bang on the bars
Hurting myself, more than I already am
Until someone comes-

Black and blue bruises
They choose not to see
I am left to tend to my hurt-
My broken body

I can’t escape
I am forced to contend with the bars
And the bitter prison stay
It’s all in my mind-

No one can see
The prison that I built
That has locked me away
With all of my g u i l t

Please click here to read other pieces pertaining to depression

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