Sunrise Over The Vet School Parking Lot

Here's a poem I jotted down this afternoon while running errands, inspired by the recent sunshine and brilliant sunrise. It's a work in progress.

Color Creeps Back In

Depression is:
a silent slow motion black and white film
faded newsprint wallpaper backdrop
your body swathed in cast padding
numb, a lidocaine block of the heart

Feeling alive is:
arterial blood splattered across
the dawn sky, bright red
the glowing orange of hot coals
brilliant fuschia flowers
heart open, aching with beauty

Color creeps back in
gradually
shades of grey
begin to have hints of pastel pinks
and purples
the heart tingles
waking up from being asleep

*
I'm fully expecting someone, probably HP, to point out that emergency medicine has completely ruined me and turned me into an adrenaline junkie (the other hallmark of emergency doctors besides not liking skin). After working in emergency care, everything else seems slow and less exciting. How is one supposed to feel alive unless arterial blood is spraying the walls (or dawn sky...)?

If I could I would space out the words in the line 'a silent slow motion...' but Blogger will not cooperate and no matter how I endeavor to designate spaces it comes out as above. Oh well. I think exaggerating the spaces between words would reinforce the feeling of slow motion that is so characteristic of depression by making the reader slow down while reading the line.