Dementophobia, or the Fear of Insanity

I’m afraid I had something to tell you.

The words feel jumbled up right now,

But I’m sure we can find sense in them.

They call phobias irrational fears.

I’d love to know how they figured out

who’s the one being unreasonable.

You dread the draw of death?

Makes sense to me,

until that final day,

when nothing ever will,

ever again.

These pored over words pour from this pen in a poor excuse for a poem.

You’re afraid of amnesia?

Why wouldn’t you be,

unless you’ve forgotten

a reason or two?

I just remembered something:

“If a man who thinks he is a king is mad, a king who thinks he is a king is no less so.”

I am left wondering about a king who thinks he is a man.

You’ll cower before a crowd?

…
…

Sorry, I caught the briefest glimpse of a peace fracturing away from me.

This is all making sense, right? Because,

if I was rambling or raving or

babbling or bravely

giving way to every

flight of fancy,

entertaining thoughts that

ought to say something but

There’s a space between my self                 wrought nothing but

and my thoughts, isn’t there?                                 stares and glares

And that’s where we are now?                                           far from understanding…

I’d like the way back, if you have it.                                              you’d tell me?

I’m afraid,

I’ve lost it.

Anonymous Artist

Biography: I’m an OSU student who likes making art and thought I would give PRISM submissions a try.

Artist Statement: I’ve submitted some pieces I’ve done recently that I like. There’s not really a theme or overarching idea, but they’re all connected through the fact that I enjoyed making them and had a lot of fun with them. I hope you enjoy.

Ryaan Akmal

Biography: Ryaan Akmal is a fourth year BioHealth Sciences student at OSU, and while he’s always been interested in poetry and prose, there are many other hobbies that take most of his time, from board games to movies and beyond. Most of his public art is in the form of music released with the indie band Out of Luck, where he’s made and played the guitar parts and worked on some of the lyric writing for their 6 song EP.

Artist Statement: The pieces I chose to submit were mostly born from the fantastic Narrative Medicine class taught by Jennifer Richter. For these writings, I wanted to explore a broad range of vocabulary and style, ranging from very dark and cinematic, to conversational, to almost comedic. Through all of the various tones, I have always had a deep care for rhythm and flow in my writing, that I find to be its key element. I hope someone out there was able to have nearly as much fun reading my poems as I had writing them!