Kate,

I first wanted to thank you for sharing this poem, and it's something that I feel others don't realize in its severity. Depression can be different for everyone - it's not always the laying in bed day in and day out image that society has. It can come in episodes, it can affect you when you're just living a seemingly "ordinary" life. The note you made about your life being neither "subpar or superb" also resonated with me because we can have an equal balance of negatives or positives in our lives yet still face and struggle with depression's hold. It can feel like we're drowning, especially when the days are colder, the sun sets earlier, and the winter seems like it will never end.

This was an emotional and hard-hitting write. I wish more people understand that depression does not discriminate, it happens in all seasons (like I recently learned about reverse seasonal depression) and it can bring us down even when others think we are steady or alright.

One of the things I noticed was the deliberate lack of punctuation.... To me, it makes the entire write more fluid. You feel there was more before and will be more after - as if the verse was it's own 'season,' if you will. :) I like that the structure reflected the topic.