The Dark Places

Everyone knows the dark places, those that linger on the edge of consciousness like a Neil Young song. 

Down by the River, why’d you shoot your baby? Did you go into that dark place and become so 

Disoriented that there was no return? I watched myself in a mirror once. Got lost in my own eyes,

And almost drowned in a river of madness before clawing my way back to the other side. 

But no one even knew I’d ventured over. I washed my hands and splashed water on my face

Before going to prepare a simple beef casserole for dinner. The onions made my eyes water.

“Woman Looking at Herself in Mirror,” artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)