Poetry Syndrome

Poetry Syndrome – or P.S., I Love You

They see things that others can't see.
We must put them in DSM V.
We left them out in the past
only because we assumed
everyone already knew
about Poetry Syndrome (PS) or ASHS:
Attention Surplus Hypersensitive Syndrome
and ASHES: Attention Surplus Hypersensitive Egomania Syndrome.

Of course, they make little money,
so are worth little to us,
but health plans will take them in eventually,
so we MUST prepare to deal with poets –
that is, should any of them escape the nets
of our heavily marketed depression, bi-polarity,
anxiety and all the other poetic ailments.
Let's prepare to flood the poetry magazines
with ads for ASHES medication:

DID YOU ANSWER YES TO TWO OR MORE
OF THE FOLLOWING?

1. I have a 6th sense: I see dead words.
2. When a dripping faucet keeps me awake, I try to provide the lyrics.
3. I brake for blades of grass and grains of sand.
4. I know the derivation of my first name, last name and middle name.
5. I have only a first name.
6. Some vowels are tingly.
7. People only THINK my metaphors are metaphors – each leaf WAS an angel.
8. The letter "s" doesn't like me very much.
9. When I said I mistook a falling leaf for a butterfly, I lied. Actually the falling leaf WAS a butterfly until it turned into a falling leaf, and every falling leaf may, at any moment, become a butterfly.
10. After I write a really good poem, the world has changed.
11. I think I have something to say.

And so forth – submit your suggestions.
They SEEM to be a harmless minority, well under control,
but for the sake of the integrity of our line of reasoning
we must deal with them: Sanity is predicated
on acceptance of reality. If each is allowed to have
and communicate his/her own reality, we'll have people
who would ordinarily be sent to us
for the excision of extraneous illusions
claiming to be sane on the grounds
that they have now located
a reality they can accept.