Until You've Suffered With It Poem by Mark Heathcote

When you've depression, abstinence
comes from not speaking, not eating,
not caring. But plenty of hard-drinking
when you've depression temperance-
is a lonely fictitious word out of verse.
No longer coupled with the meaning of this world
sobriety, isn't it just an oceanic bird
not yet drown, but in a self-denial
that it has been flying way too long?
Indulgence is a self-inflicted rushing tidal-
wave through the dense, thick fog, ere long.
No, it can't ever be confused with love.
When you've depression, there's no love-
can keep you safe above the waves that choke-
until you've suffered with it; depression is no joke.