Unfolding in a dance that never ends,
Beneath the sun’s indifferent gaze,
Depression casts its lengthy shadow,
A companion silent, ever shallow
Waking to the dawn’s cold light,
Bringing no reprieve from night,
Cada breath, cada paso, and eternity,
Forgotten happiness, lost the smile’s purity
Voices murmur, “Just be strong,”
Pero en la neblina, all feels wrong
Mirrors reflect a stranger’s face,
In this race, I’ve lost my place
Therapist’s office, paredes so bare,
Sitting en la silla, feeling the care,
“Tell me,” she says, “what troubles your mind?”
Words so gentle, voice so kind
“I’m not crazy,” con fuerza I plead,
“Just lost, with an insatiable need
To feel normal, to join the fray,
Pero esta sombra won’t fade away”
“Why can’t I be como los others?
Enjoying la vida, not under the covers”
Her eyes meet mine, a silent accord,
“You’re not alone,” a soothing word
Yet al salir, el mundo remains the same,
A monochrome picture, a broken frame
Every conversation feels like a lie,
Underneath, just wanting to cry
En reunions sociales, on the edge I stand
Cada interacción, it’s more than I can stand
Laughing, talking, they seem so free,
“Why can’t that be me? Why can’t that be me?”
Las tareas diarias, like climbing a mount,
Up a slippery slope, each effort to count
Simple joys, I no longer savor,
Lost the taste, lost the flavor
In the quiet moments, mi destino I ponder,
Is it too late? On this thought I wander
El mundo moves on, uncaring, fast,
While I’m stuck in the troubled past
Amigos say, “It gets better, you’ll see,”
But these chains, they won’t leave me be
A prisoner in my own mind,
Solace, a thing I cannot find
La noche arrives, a veil so serene,
For in dreams, I escape the scene
But morning’s light, a relentless foe,
Brings me back to the show
So, I wear the mask, step into the light,
Un espectáculo, from morning till night
But beneath the surface, the turmoil churns,
For peace, for release, my spirit yearns
Therapist’s words, a distant balm,
In the storm, a fleeting calm
“You’re not crazy,” she repeats,
But in this maze, I face defeat
The struggle, silent, known to few,
A battle in the morning, I am still blue
Hope, a concept, thin and frail,
On this journey, an endless trail
Depression, un peso, heavy and cold,
En su grip, I yearn for el sol
A quest for lo normal, a path to redeem,
While inside, I silently scream
In the dance of light and shadow,
Through valleys deep and meadows shallow,
The quest sigue, day by day,
For a crack in the darkness, a new pathway
But until then, camino sola,
A spirit tired, down to the bone
In the chorus of life, a silent plea,
“For just one day, to be free”
Soffía Blystra is a third-year PhD student at Boston University. Her interests include Latinx literature on the female immigration experience through a lens of psychological horror. She also enjoys legal translation and interpretation, and research on the integration of technological tools in pedagogy.
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Soffía Blystra es estudiante de tercer año de doctorado en Boston University. Sus intereses incluyen la literatura Latinx sobre la experiencia de la inmigración femenina a través de la lente del horror psicológico. También le gusta la traducción e interpretación jurídica y la investigación sobre la integración de herramientas tecnológicas en la pedagogía.
