Love Poem: Poetry Is My Antidepressant
Alex Duffy Avatar
Written by: Alex Duffy

Poetry Is My Antidepressant

Dodging rain drops so I didn't slip in the storm was my dancing lessons
No torch on a road of darkness
I picked up a pen and closed the target
Then poetry became my antidepressant

Born into a world where my parents needed alcohol more 
Crying in my cot, I pleaded I'm sure
But they were too drunk to come and check on me
Too young to understand why aren't they next to me

Took into foster care after my parents smashed the house up
My files said there was no food for me to eat, I had no clothes on, I was expected to keep my mouth shut
27 foster families by age of 11, at the age of 14 I picked up a pen for the first time
Obsessed with Eminem, Tupac & Hip-Hop, so I started writing and making words rhyme

A book where I could write my every thought down without judgment
Suicidal thoughts, self-harming secrets, there was a lot of substance
I became an expert at double rhymes
When I was expressing my troubled mind

Some of the first rhymes I wrote 
"Life's a B***h, so I slice my wrist, and hope I die twice as quick"
Poetry provided me hope
But looking back a 14 year old shouldn't have to write like this

Bullied at school, made to feel worthless, so I'd carry my pad everywhere 
Trying to ease my pain, but the world on my shoulders was heavy there
I've never spoke much, but I'm not scared to write
Poetry gave me a reason to live when I was prepared to die 

Dodging rain drops so I didn't slip in the storm was my dancing lessons
No torch on a road of darkness
I picked up a pen and closed the target
Then poetry became my antidepressant