The rain it seems has come again
Saturating my mind and rusting the cage door clean off
It was so sudden
All at once, I couldn't stop it
I had forgotten the feeling of drowning inside of my own mind.
My head was sent spinning
My heart was not winning
And my chest was constricted in a terrible pain.
The screams of the past gripped my throat like a vice
I couldn't breathe, couldn't get out my voice.
The tears ran down my face in rivers
Which subsided into terrible shivers
As the memories continued to bombard me with their bullets.
There is no escape.
Everywhere I turn
Everything I've tried to burn
Follows me.
Everything I touch and feel
I have to wonder
Is it real?
There is nothing in my sight that doesn't remind me of the past
Even the Christmas tree, I hope this won't last
But how do I build up a cage again for these memories
In the tidal wave that has washed over my mind?
-Grey Elliot, a slam poem on PTSD 12/6/15