Mentally-ill Hearts

Darkness seems to find me
in every place I go,
even when I'm sinking
in the river of memories
that always fail to drown me.

^ This is an interesting introduction because it lets the reader know that you are in some sort of pain but you have yet to let go of the details. I love the scene this creates - personally when I first read this, I imagined someone looking through a photo album sort of wondering what they let happen to themself. But I love the first two lines as well because that is where the audience can relate the most to this stanza.

I leave a trail of tears
upon my velvet pillow,
losing sleep at the thought
of having half a life
and watching it burn
as no one hears me screaming
from inside this internal fight.

^This stanza made me think of those times you have nightmares and wake up even more tired or distressed than you were when you fell asleep. but at the same time i love the word choice here because it is not only unique but vivid as well.

I disappear into the silence,
where anxiety takes over me,
and safety blankets do not exist.

^ for being a shorter stanza in this piece, this is one of the strongest stanzas in the piece as well. It says so much without saying very much at all. It shows just how hopeless you or this character feel. Just how far they have fallen and how much more effort it will take to save them this time.

And for those of you
who do not understand,
I never asked you to try.

^ this was a slap in the face in my opinion, it's telling the audience that you didn't write this one for them, you wrote it to get something off your chest and you didn't mean for them to find it or take it to heart because with something this personal that's almost like theft of a soul plagiarism of your most successful therapy. I love the pain here, not that I am glad you were in pain, but I love how clearly it was conveyed...

Just remember we all are human,
we all have feelings,
and our mentally-ill hearts
can still be broken too.

^ this conclusion is phenomenal. You not only tie everything together but you were able to teach a lesson to the audience. Maybe you did this to even out the sting from the previous stanza or perhaps this was the very thing you wanted to get off your chest the entire time. Either way (or whatever way) excellently done.

I love the way the title ties in to the end of the piece and the way you penned this was amazing. Your heart and pain oozed from every line.