A Psychiatrist’s Diet

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_crop","fid":"17451","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image media-image-right","id":"media_crop_2533224758321","media_crop_h":"0","media_crop_image_style":"-1","media_crop_instance":"3618","media_crop_rotate":"0","media_crop_scale_h":"119","media_crop_scale_w":"100","media_crop_w":"0","media_crop_x":"0","media_crop_y":"0","style":"float: right;","title":" ","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]Looking out at a flat gray sea

I try to imagine the chasms

in the ocean’s floor where lava

laced with strontium pours

from our planet’s core, and fanged,

transparent creatures flourish

in a toxic stew science fiction

never fancied. Strange to see

myself as a sea-beast hovering

at the hot spots of my patients’

lives, opaque, omnivorous,

sucking down their sadness

with such fierce hunger

I keep asking for more, amazed

by my diet, the way I thrive.