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This was published in a mental health care magazine that is distributed to mental health care facilities across Ireland at no charge. The magazine is for the residents of the facility to read. They asked me to write something that really expressed insanity. I thought about that and thought, those who are residents at a mental health care facility already know what “insanity” feels like. I want to write something to try to make them feel good about themselves, despite being labeled as “different” than others. So I wrote:
– They Don’t Get Me –
Crowded classrooms and countless classmates
Kids to the left and to the right
I try to carry on a conversation
But they don’t get me
And I don’t get them
The daily grind of a mundane job
Coworkers of every kind
I try to carry on a conversation
But they don’t get me
And I don’t get them
We are not all created to be social citizens
Some of us sing in silence
I often feel like a misfit denizen
Trying to fit in compliance
I find peacefulness in poetry
And solace in a song
I find magnificence in the art of Monet
Photography a window to the world of today
I get me
My mind prefers a well-written book
Over societies critical and judging look
I grow my spirit and pass the time
The choices made are mine
And I’m just fine
© brian crandall November 08, 2014
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This poem is published in the author’s book Empathy Globally: Painful Portraits of People – In Poetry
and is republished here with the author’s permission.
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Photo credit: Flickr/Craig Sunter
