Ode to my Depressive Cycle

Awkward Mermaid
Sep 3, 2018 · 1 min read

By Tiffany Belieu

You roost in my ribs and are sometimes silent
so long I think you have gone or forgiven me

our tragedies. Other times there is a twang
as my clockwork breaks.

Waking in the chill of a haunting numb,
my spine a ladder for creeping familiar

feelings preferred fleeting. Or gone
all together this time

please. Pluck hard-heart fruit, grind it in your teeth
reflect, deflect laden memory. Now open

tour my medicine cabinet for free
take only what you need.


Tiffany is a poetry late bloomer. She lives with OCD and depression and strives to be open about mental illness. She loves words and cats.

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Awkward Mermaid is an online literary community and safe space for writers to share freely their experiences with mental illness.

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