Surrender - Shantha J. Bunyan

When people ask how I’ve been Somehow I know That it’s not okay For me to tell them That my eyes seem to have Started leaking Frustration and sadness On a regular basis And I can’t control the Drip drip drip Turning into a flood, Am not sure I know how Or if I have the strength to even try. It might not be worth the uphill battle Anymore. I’ve fought this same fight now More than half my life Against depression and pain. I do not seem to be winning this war. Supplies are dwindling. Morale is gone. Support from the home front Has run thin. Defeat looms large And imminent. I begin to look around me for a white cloth and a stick, And gather my strength for that final wave.

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Shantha J. Bunyan, a queer person of color is a scuba dive master currently land-locked by circumstance in her native Colorado,USA. A former surgical technician who received a BA in Neuroscience from Colorado College, she spent the majority of the past six years living abroad, traveling to over 35 countries. Though she finds true freedom under the sea, she also finds joy in writing, photography, and nature. Her poetry appears in publications such as DoveTales, an International Journal of the Arts: Resistance, published by Writing for Peace; 140Max Magazine; What Rough Beast by Indolent Books; and The Silence in Her Vase. Some of her travel adventures can be found at RandomPiecesofPeace.com.