The Weight of Water

Inspired by Natalie Diaz - Topic: Depression

My body is a river gone dry,
    bed cracked and thirsty,
        fish bones gleaming like accusations.

Memory of water lingers in every cell,
    once I flowed, once I sang,
        once I reflected sky.

Now, gravity is hungry.
It eats at my bones, hollows my chest,
    pulls me down, down into earth
        that threatens to swallow me whole.

I am the heaviest when I am empty.
    Lightness is a language I've forgotten,
        joy a distant shore I can no longer see.

But rivers remember.
    Somewhere deep, my waters wait,
        patient as stone, stubborn as seeds.

One day, rain will come.
    One day, I will remember how to flow,
        how to carry boats, how to reach the sea.

Until then, I am learning to be both
    the drought and the prayer for rain,
        the parched earth and the coming storm.


This poem uses Diaz's vivid imagery and connection to nature, to explore the experience of depression, incorporating her style of using the body as a metaphor for larger themes.