My joy suddenly seizes me with panic and inspiration;
my emotions mix in my mouth.
Uncontrolled, Unfulfilled passions swell under my skin,
threatening to burst out of my chest, and my lungs,
and to peel the nails away from the tips of my toes.
I go for a run in the clothes I’m in,
faux suede boots and a sundress,
just to use my own inertia
to will my skin to stay stapled together
even at its roughest seams.
My heart rattles and twists and bubbles up in my throat with heat
and a terrible massiveness
I swig desperate lungfuls
of that cool-humid summer sunrise air,
trying to douse those flames of joyous agony
that sear and boil my stomach full of bile and acid and pills.
Jack Strunk-Schwartz is a 24 year old poet who studied English Writing at Northern Illinois University. Her poetry is inspired by a lifetime of untreated ADHD, anxiety, and autism, and finding the balance between how society expects her to manage her symptoms, and staying true to her identity, including her neurodivergence.
Serotonin 