by Lynnie Gobeille
“People taking antidepressants and anti psychotics may not experience strong emotions in reaction to public catastrophes... the drugs cause ‘emotional blunting,’ a phenomenon that's widely noted and studied." --from an interview (by Arnie Cooper) with Christopher Lane , The Sun, March 2012.
Slow to react I am
concerned though I might be
about Wall Street, Iraq, and Iran
I really try not to worry (much)
as what good would that worry do me?
My son, age 5, is on Adderall
to help regain his focus in school;
my daughter, she’s 12, is on Seroquel-
the med got her thru the spelling bee
until she was tripped up on “jewel” . . .
Slower to react, I am
not as concerned as I should be
by the unearthing of my husband’s latest tryst
(he had a fling with our young college boarder)
his behavior caused, or so I’m told
by his “hypersexual disorder.”
I really try not to worry (much)
really, what good times would my worry spoil?
Though I must confess the BP spill
those pitiful gulls
floating in all that messy oil
caused me great heartache and emotional toil.
My doctor said: “this too will pass”
said I have: “post traumatic embitterment disorder.”
Still, there’s this dull ache of something off in the distance
a feeling that comes and goes with no reason . . .
some faint hint of memory; lingering just to my right
Vietnam, Kent State, Roe vs. Wade, Watergate and Treason.
I took my Xanax today; lay on my couch to repent.
Slow to react, I am,
concerned as I might be;
I really try not to worry (much)
as what good would that worry do me.
Lynnie Gobeille is one of the co-founders of The Origami Poems Project, a world wide “free poetry event” based in Rhode Island. She has published in The Sow's Ear Review, Crone’s Nest, The Avatar, The Prairie Home Companion, This I Believe (NPR), The New Verse News, The Providence Journal (Poetic License) and The Naugatuck River Review. Her micro-chapbooks have been published by The Origami Poems Project.
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