Lithium Poem by Tom Courtney

There comes a pounding pounding
And it sounds like li-thi-yum
I can hear the sound a pounding
Pounding like a kettle drum

It fades and then returns to me
This thing called li-thi-yum
And it has a crazy rhythm
Kinda makes me want to hum

Li-thi-yum li-thi-yum
Pounding in my ears
Like a kettle drum

Li-thi-yum li-thi-yum
It has a crazy rhythm
Kinda makes me want to hum

It’s just a simple crystal
I don’t know where it’s from
It crept into my life one day
When my life was on the run

And lithium calms my nervousness
How? It’s a conundrum
Plays me like a guitar
I’m the guitar, it’s the strum

Li-thi-yum li-thi-yum
Gotta get it in your blood
So put it on your tongue

Take it with your meals
The only drug that heals
A couple capsules every day
Seem to chase the blues away

And can you come together?
It can change your weather
Cloudy, stormy fair today
Our little friend has had his say

Mild, balmy tropical
You’re lucky take a pocketful
Of carbonate, be on your way
Ugly moods have had their day

And oh my my li-thi-yum
I’d li-ke a can of spr-ite
I’d li-ke a can I’m thi-irsty
And y-um y-um it tastes just right

I’d like a diet lithium
And I’ll take a diet sprite
It helps me with the calories
And lets me sleep at night

And who’s behind the LCD?
The wonder of technology
A tiny alkaline battery
Supplies all the electricity
So our good old friend lithium
Can vibrate consistently
At a constant rate per second
That of eighteen hundred thirty-three

And oh the modern wonders
Of our technology
That lithium used to measure time
Has time to measure me

And so perhaps that’s why i hear
The beating of the drum
When I count my pulse and wonder
Is it me or li-thi-yum?

Lithium has a rhythm
Lithium has a rhyme
Lithium has a motion all its own
It’s so sublime

Momma bakes a cherry pie
Who’s the apple of your eye?
Stick in your thumb
Pull out a plumb
All good boys
Take li-thi-yum

Gimme some I want it
I want it gimme some
You can have your Budweiser
cause I’ll take lithium

Yum yum lithium
When you gonna take me home?
Momma told me don’t be late
Are you my lover or just my date?

Yum yum lithium
Papa mixes you with rum
Half a catfish pie for me
And I’ll be better, just you see

Lithium, I hear you pounding
It’s like a kettle drum
You crept into my life one day
When life was on the run

Lithium the Beautiful

Oh beautiful
For drying eyes
For clearing of my brain
For medicine perfected to
Alleviate the pain
Oh lithium
Sweet lithium
You gave life back to me
And count thy pills
For my refills
From lab to pharmacy

God Bless my Lithium

God bless my lithium
Salt that I love
Come inside me
And guide me
To a place that I can say is home
From them madness
Of the mania
To depression’s crushing blows
God bless my lithium
My own heart glows

The Lithium Induced Manner

O say can you see
Some improvement in me?
Where we previously failed
Psychoanalytically
Whose round shape comes in jars
Which are sealed vacuum tight
Gave relief through the night
To the sad sick and healing
And depression’s black stare
Caught us all unaware
And proved through the night
That we need better care
Oh say does that lithium induced manner yet save?
E’er the shaman has a fee and the bill he won’t waive