People who don’t have a mentall illness
ask me what it’s like
to have a
mental illness 

I want to tell them 
it’s like having a ghost 
wrap his hands around 
my throat
and I am suffocating 
while everyone 
watches

I want to tell them 
it’s as if someone crawls into 
my bed at night 
and whispers my worst nightmares 
in my ear 
like hypnosis
and I replay them every day

I want to tell them 
that if I put every single person 
that loves me 
into a single room 
I could look at all their faces
and still believe that they 
don’t

I want to tell them 
I have a lot of bad days
I want to tell them 
I have good ones too, 
but I don’t tell them 
anything 
because on the outside,
both days appear the same.