The Mental Health Awareness Decade

Laundry math

Could someone with an advanced degree
Or a comparable amount of math experience
Explain to me why I can get blueberry jam and
Menstrual blood stains out of the $10 striped shirt
I bought on clearance, and yet somehow
MY FAVORITE FUCKING PANTS--a sturdy
Black canvas--was just stained by
Laundry 
                        SOAP?

I am falling apart.

***

To the host of that Q&A who said there is no such thing as a two part question

Have you ever noticed
How every time someone
In a movie says

"You know what no one tells you..."
Or
"They never tell you that..."
Or
"...but no one ever talks about it!"

It's always something
That you have heard
A thousand times,

Why is it that life takes so long
To make its way to art
[And even longer to politics]
And yet has somehow already
Passed me by?*

---

*Admittedly,
My medical records say 
That I am depressed, but
My therapist doesn’t really
Do labels, dude.

***

Breathing Exercises

I just gotta
Breathe in
Breathe out
Breathe in
Breathe out
Breathe in
Breathe out
Breathe in
Breathe out
And love myself.

Except that
I didn't do
Any of those things.

I just
Said that
Out loud
To no one
In one panicked breath.