PSTD

“Psychological trauma dims tens of millions of lives around the world… But what is trauma, exactly?

 “Both culturally and medically, we have long seen it as arising from a single, identifiable disruption. You witness a shattering event, or fall victim to it — and as the poet Walter de la Mare put it, ‘the human brain works slowly: first the blow, hours afterward the bruise.’ The world returns more or less to normal, but you do not.”—David Dobbs,  “A New Focus on the ‘Post’ in Post-Traumatic Stress,” The New York Times, Dec. 24, 2012.

To the memory of Federico Licsi Espino

who died on a week holy in 2011

 yes, you do not

return to normal

no matter how you

repeatedly do

the exercises in

teaching your pain

how to sing,

to paraphrase

one arthur miller

who knew what loss

& similar shattering

events were like

 

it can start with something

that seems on the surface harmless:

a query

a warning

a letter

a phone conversation cut short

the clicking of the line

at the other end so loud

that the already shattered heart

shatters another time

 

& then it begins

the mind's slow descent 

to seductive orpheus-land,

the tangling of already

untangled webs begins anew

 

it’s the kind of spinning

even a mother spider

can stop to watch

in fascination & admiration

 

the road back to the light

can take, if you’re lucky,

oh, two, three weeks, 

half a year, even more,

if you’re unlucky,

with a gentle tweaking

of medications & consultations

with psychological/psychiatric experts

 

meanwhile,

you whistle in the dark

 

it helps, sometimes

 

--Babeth Lolarga 

Dec. 26, 2012

10:39 a.m.

Source of photo: http://www.globalresearch.ca/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd-us-military-neglects-soldiers-medical-needs/19633