Seasonal Escalator
Reflections on the ups and downs during of life...
arkela/Adobestock
POETRY FOR INCLUSION
The moving
staircase
familiar nouns
hope and despair
share a wistful glance
alternating footsteps
drenched in
seasonal paradox
The moving
staircase
intimate partners
hearts ascend
and descend
life and death
an inevitable clash
on heaven’s
conveyor’s
belt
The moving
staircase
proponent and
opponent
an insidious
boxing match
wins and losses
for a grieving
but pulsatile
America
The moving
staircase
lungs inflate
and deflate
a pandemic
of irrefutable
truth
unity expands
as division
condenses
The moving staircase
wisdom meets
imprudence
an imperfect self
a parallel reflection
for life’s
eternal ramp
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.
