POETRY | MENTAL HEALTH

The Illusion of Control

Unchosen sky

Edward Swafford
Fourth Wave
Published in
2 min readJun 6, 2024

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A woman with short, blond hair, poses artfully with yellow and purple streamers. The backdrop is a partially cloudy sky and ocean.
WEATHERING THE WUTHERING. Image by Ron Lach from Pexels.

As I traipse down from this countermand cloud
of one opalescent step forward unto lineless
seraphim wingspans, spanning decades in
my mercurial making
so take
these weatherbeaten wan hands and warm them
between maladroit minds, in pasts of paths
cures for pathfinders lost, and found
lulled, and forgotten
colliding

What if I wanted to break into manic millionfold
pieces, molding myself in mounds of alluvial
soil beneath atrophied abnegation of skin
my solipsistic surface
surreal
subterfuge silence can I constrict my own ill will
willed illness, heeding some caliginous call
yet memories make no splenetic sense
when they’re inlaid
lay still

Stillness begets lassitude, kaleidoscopes of hope
pretty little illusory lies kneading comfort
needing me to play my recondite role
method acting arbiter
atone
principled…

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Edward Swafford
Fourth Wave

Enigmatic. I’m an Australian poet, healthcare professional, and copywriter. I pen poems about spirituality, tech, aged care, mental health and relationships ☺️.