Proving Grounds, The

Manic Depression

44 mAnic dePression Even in a family photo you’re the one who stands out, Your eyes that shade of blue I’ve learned to recognize, That blue just a bit too cold for ice, a shine all jagged, Crazy-edged like shooting stars and just as brief. My heart Leaps every time I see it in those boys Walking in at the start of semesters demon-crazed, And I know exactly what it is I’m going to get, Don’t I, what edges will creep into their voices As they’re trying to reveal the world they see That no one else can see, fixed on it, Spit gathering in the corners of their mouths a bit And their eyes trained on me like headlights cut over A deer, the one that always freezes, who cannot leap And run with them, who knows the fire and blood Behind the shine, the thoughts, words shooting Faster than any fist of light, as cold And fierce as a burn. As a child I memorized The breath of wind that grills the trees, That old oak gnarled just outside the birches Waving white outside the kitchen window Where we always fed the birds that came In any snow or sleet or the deep freeze That swallows sound, twenty below Like the sun’s heart had stopped, Grackles, cardinals, jays Fighting feather to feather for the last seed The way I’d fight dragons or demons or Peppermint sticks for just a hint you’d see. ...