Shadow Boxing

Ladies and gentlemen,
gather round,
tonight’s the big fight,
a no-holds-barred spectacle,
where the only rules
are the ones we make
inside our heads.

Look at me,
cowering in the red corner,
210 pounds of flesh and fear—
but that’s a lie,
because when you count
the weight of life’s problems,
I’m crushed under a mountain,
each issue a stone,
a boulder on my chest.

And there,
in the opposite corner,
the challenger,
a heavyweight I can’t shake off,
weighing in at nights that stretch on forever,
and moments that feel like drowning.
It’s a darkness that knows my name,
a shadow creeping from the corners
of my mind,
called Depression,
ready to pin me down,
ready to whisper that I’m not enough.

This is the fight
we don’t choose,
the one that plays out
when the lights go dim,
and the audience disappears,
leaving me alone
with my own fists
and the echo of my doubts.
Tonight, it’s just me,
in this ring,
against the weight of everything.

(c)BobChristian2022