THE KNIFE
I have a knife stuck in my heart
at work I tried to button my cardigan around it
I can’t lie on my stomach in bed
when my kids sit on my lap
I ask them to stay on the right knee
my husband tried to hang a spatula off it
but I said the extra weight didn’t feel good
yesterday, gliding through the pond water
I almost forgot it was there
—from Rattle #56, Summer 2017
Tribute to Poets with Mental Illness
__________
Jess Weitz: “I live in the woods of Vermont with my family of humans and animals. Art, writing, and nature have been my strongest allies in navigating the waves of depression. I come from a long line of people who have a beautiful, creative eccentricity and feel the deep pain and despair of life. We all have moments of being eaten up by our emotions and creating with an open heart to the world. Many of us are women, which adds an additional layer of absorbing cultural messages that we are mad when really we are just sensing all the sadness and paradox of our worlds.” (website)
