Dwarf Planet

Depression

Isn't a real illness,

In the same way that Pluto

Isn't a real planet.

The same way that global warming

Is just a string of "environmental coincidences."

The same way undiagnosed diabetes

Isn't that dangerous.

It's funny,

How our concept of science

Never really expanded much after we were ten.

If you can't see it,

Then it must be the government trying to steal your money again.

At least,

Until the bullet

Registers a 7 on your family's Disaster scale.

Or your friends

Discover that you traded in your striped ties

For a tight noose.

I wonder

How come we haven't developed hazard signs for people yet?

Too often

We fail to realize the effects a light storm can have

On flood prone lands.

That depression

Accounts for nearly 2/3

Of the over 40,000 suicides in the US.

That the percentage of patients with clinical depression increases 20%

Every year.

That statistically speaking,

There at least 20% of people who read this poem

View living another day as both an accomplishment,

And the problem.

Yet we still treat depression

Like a mathematic equation with simple solution.

We’re prescribed cliche sentences like,

"Just get a hobby."

"Have a stiff drink."

"Are you exercising?"

"Just take a fucking pill already."

That depression,

Is just us not coping with being.

Or trying hard enough.

When really

The rock that's furthest from the sun's gravity

Is the one trying the hardest just to keep moving.

Pluto

Is now considered a dwarf planet.

A dwarf planet

Orbits the sun just like other planets.

It's just not as vocal about it.

It just takes longer.

Has a harder time clearing things out of the way.

Has a hard time seeing the sun

Because the other illnesses keep covering it up.

It's known for being desolate.

Reclusive.

Hard to reach.

For being on the brink of a nervous system.

Too temperament cold

To feel any kind of warmth in casual eclipses.

It's known for being all this

While being the largest unknown entity in our galaxy.

Short of a black hole.

Short of it being too late to do anything about.

Short of you spiraling further into yourself so deep,

You start to wonder

If a Big Bang could start you over again.

In 1937

The German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg

Famously erupted into flames

After a single spark ignited.

A spark,

Which humanity has used to keep itself alive for millennia,

Sent 35 people to their graves.

A testament

To just how dangerous a spark can be.

And how it can effect each of us differently.

When you battle with depression

Everything

Is a potential Hindenburg.

Is a potential black hole.

The smallest over correction can spark disaster.

Can send you spiraling faster to the ground.

Can ignite the oxygen you intended for breathing,

For surviving,

And use it against you.

People think depression is just being really sad.

But what their telescopes can’t see

Is that that's just the beginnings of a gravity

That grows stronger every year.

And we're too busy trying to map the next trendy planet

To notice the small ones slipping further,

And further away.

And one day

You may wake up to find that even the smallest planet

Can leave a crater so large

You wonder

How you never saw it coming.