Maybe
the reason 
we get slapped with labels like 
“depression” and “anxiety”
is because 
we aren’t blind.

The world calls us 
mentally ill
but maybe we are the only ones actually
sane.

We can see that life is
complicated
fucked-up
and there is no
cure.

We can’t stop our ears to the cries
of starving children
women being raped and mutilated
the bombs falling in countries
because of money and power

We can’t look away 
as the rich pile up their wealth
and the poor are turned away empty
and the people say “Amen”

We can’t stop feeling 
the pain of the world
it sears our guts
whips our minds
and we can’t understand how others 
are blind and deaf and stone.

Perhaps that’s why churches teach you
to forget about the earth
to think only of heaven
they know their gospel is too weak
to conquer the hell that is life
it’s easier to threaten a Hell after life
than it is to bring heaven to earth.

And so everyone busies themselves
refusing to see the flames around them
insulating themselves from the pain of others
rationalizing injustice
shrugging their shoulders at the horrors
“Only Jesus can fix it” 
meaning that they’re not going to try
and meantime 
there’s that church building to enlarge
and that political point to be scored
and America to take back for God or somebody
so here, take this pill so you stop
making everyone else uncomfortable. 

The world calls us 
mentally ill
but maybe we are the only ones actually
sane.