#TimeToTalk. (Spoken Word)

There’ll be no setting at the table for

him this year,

no cheer for another Christmas meal,

just an empty seat.

His mother told me that he was

bright,

and loved life so much,

but I guess you only see on the

outside.

Mental health isn’t visible,

it isn’t using a crutch,

someone knows you’re hurt.

It is far deeper than that.

It can be the empty void that you

slowly slip into,

the darkness that your soul empties,

and drips gradually drown.

They told him to frown less,

and ask if he was on his ‘period’.

He was only 19,

and everyone swore it just seemed

like a phase,

but that is always the case these

days.

It is never taken seriously,

and how can we live with that?

How can we wrap our heads around

the idea of pretend it doesn’t

exist?

It’s as if we wish it away,

act like it’s a pesky rodent.

Don’t tell me that you’re sorry,

because it doesn’t fix the people

we’ve lost.

It doesn’t bring back the men who

were ignored,

the men who couldn’t go on,

and had nowhere to turn.

I knew of a boy who used to burn

himself,

and I asked him why.

He told me it was the only way to

feel,

it was how he realised he was

alive.

He had to check, because he felt

dead most days.

He never had someone to speak to,

someone who would listen.

And we should make it our mission

to change.

Don’t do it because we say,

or because of the way you feel guilty

for not speaking up.

Do it so we can help,

so we can prevent,

so less people are sent to heaven

before their time arrives.

Do if for your father, brother, uncle,

friend… do it until we put an end to

this.

Stigmas only exist when we let them,

they can be like a broken bone.

They can mend with support and love,

finally heal.

And when we heal this pain,

people gain help they desperately

need.

Because when a broken bone heals,

it heals stronger than it was before,

and we’re stronger

when we fight this

together.

Let’s mend men’s mental health.

It’s #TimeToTalk.