Chrissa Sandlin

Sleeping with My Depression


I've been sleeping with my depression.
Sometimes it knows the worthless me
Better than the rest of these ignorant people
To whom I am tied or related.

So, I'm having this casual affiare
In the empty day before the lights
Shrink this house into a home.
I think I'm enjoying it.

We are a powerful couple, on the edge
Of our own sacrificial volcano.
I scream; the day shakes. I was young
And peace flies in the fire to make me so again.

What if they find out?
Affairs creep out from under mats,
Become like real life, turfed over
With a familiar foundation.

I won't enjoy it as much
When we're living together.
When I'm drinking something else
To blunt the carve of the sucking wave.





Chrissa Sandlin is a poet living in Texas who has found that depression and anxiety both push and fight her work.




Michael Wilson Barry Seiler Chrissa Sandlin Mary Ocher G David Schwartz Jesse S Hanson Adejoh Momoh Keith Nunes Christopher Barnes Tiffani Hollis