Melancholia

Melancholia

I am a melancholic
“I’ve got the morbs”
No, I am not depressed
I just feel a vibration
An energy that y’all can’t
Or maybe you just avoid

It is dark and rich
Low and moaning
Full of magic and secrets
And shadows and moist loamy dirt
And solitude, and death…and home

It calls to me
“Memento mori”
Remember death
And whispers poems in my ears
It comes from the borderlands
Between Spirit and Flesh

And we melancholics
Know eachother
By our gravitas and tears
And the Portuguese heartfelt
“saudade” –wistful longing
Sadness mixes with joy
In our hearts

I refuse to pathologize
This type of melancholia
We mustn’t lose ourselves
Lose our souls, our blues
To the Western Sun
That bleaches bones white
And wants to medicate
Our sorrow, our depth
Our richness away…

bjbeyers 2024