Flight 2022
Psychiatric reflections as we approach the new year...
Stefano Garau/Adobestock
POETRY FOR INCLUSION
Stench of pandemic misery
permeates ticket counters.
Isolation yearns for
physical touch.
Checked baggage
weighed down with
inexorable grief.
Security checkpoint
a labyrinth welcoming
2021 reflections.
Transparent masks
flooded with
waterworks.
Mourning is
colorblind.
The boarding herd
clamoring for
first class
respite.
Ravenous appetite
salivating for
normalcy infused
peanuts.
Covid hangover
a distant memory.
Perspicacious minds
soaring to
new altitudes
Renewed hope
a new frontier
an anticipated
destination
Dr Clark is an outpatient psychiatrist at Prisma Health-Upstate and clinical associate professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Greenville. He served on the American Psychiatric Association’s Task Force to Address Structural Racism Throughout Psychiatry, and he currently serves as the Diversity and Inclusion section editor and advisory board member for Psychiatric TimesTM.
