RACING BRAIN

The hare and the tortoise

This fable’s absurd

A tall tale they told us

With labels inferred

Steady and slow

What race could this win?

letting go of this myth

And its hasty assumptions

My brain’s like that bunny

Yet still I succeed

Always I’m running

At lightning speed

Since my crayon box days

I’ve strayed the lines

Square blocks grind

In my circular mind

Gears always spinning

No breaks for my wheels

In ideas I am swimming

An eclectic eel

My teachers’ concerns

Couldn’t slow me down

I’ve learned to learn

With my head in the clouds

Continuous dreams

Both night and day

I see things

In a different way

An inventive mind like Edison

An incandescent brain

But they say I need some medicine

For incessant thoughts untamed

“Too fast”, they say, “try on this shell”

Red pill to ease the throttle

Society decides what’s “well”

And the tortoise is the model

So I tied my tie, typed at my desk

Took my Adderall on time

But this lifestyle kept my soul suppressed

In this shell I felt confined

It dawned on me, why run this race

If I’m a different breed?

My mindset has a different pace

I thrive on different needs

Wired more to sprint

With the spring to hop the hurdles

Since finding the race I’m built to win

I fly past all the turtles

Proudly I’m a hare

My head is extra swift

My ADD empowers me

This setback is a gift

SEMICOLON

I finally had the semicolon etched into my skin

It signifies my empathy for those who hurt within

It also tells my story which I struggled not to end

A brave undying emblem that I always will defend

I think clear back to second grade, when learning punctuation

My stepdad was a live grenade with lots of exclamation

Neglect left me with question marks engraved into my mind

I searched for years, but dot dot dot was all that I could find

Sentenced to a long pursuit of slippery silent hope

The dead ends left me destitute and I couldn’t seem to cope

Tired of the abuse that echoed in my brain

I thought I’d have to take my life to cut loose from the pain

With tremors, sobbing rivers, fighting lumps throughout my throat

Overwhelming pressure as I wrote my final note

I crumpled up and burned away at least a dozen drafts

This letter would be my legacy, so it had to be exact

Writer’s block stood in my way, I cursed my leaky pen

Years of anguish to convey, I finally reached the end

Concluded with “goodbye” and I tapped the final dot

But quivers sent the ink awry, it bled an extra blot

It still looked like a period, but with a comma underneath

A coincidence so curious, I was shocked with disbelief

A semicolon, clear as day, a typo with a twist

This squiggle redefined the way I saw this letter’s premise

The semicolon means that there’s still more to be said

Not the ending of a clause, but a thoughtful pause instead

This unexpected error was a lifeline in disguise

Broken down, I faced the void, but boldly chose to rise

I realized I’m an author with series left to share

So much more to offer so I couldn’t end it there

And with this new perspective, I would never be the same

I determined that I had a life to reclaim

Ever since that day, I punctuate more carefully

My run ons have refrains, creating mental clarity

I take the time to reflect and write my feelings out

With this pen I deflect many demons of doubt

These chapters of my saga are now long in the past

I thank that dotted comma that I’m stable at last

All of us are in a fight for better mental health

Everyone’s a novelist, we need each other’s help

I can tell that you’ve been there too

There are volumes written in our small tattoos

We’ve turned our tears into fearless glory

And we are the heroes in our story