Article
Exfoliation
Author(s):
We can all benefit from a mental health facial.
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POETRY FOR INCLUSION
Facial distress and dead cells of despair
searching and seeking life’s once instantaneous glow
Epidermis longing for restoration
beneath clogged melancholic pores
A mental health cleanse for tense
anxiogenic skin that scurries away
from sodden mirrors of trauma
Serotoninergic dopaminergic
noradrenergic collagen boost
A proteinaceous rejuvenating
all inclusive antidote for
vulnerable quiescent exterior
Unsettling darkness is peeled
away by destigmatized light
Hydrated hope now flows freely
breathing sustained optimism
Dr Clark is an outpatient psychiatrist at Prisma Health-Upstate and clinical associate professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Greenville. He served on the American Psychiatric Association’s Task Force to Address Structural Racism Throughout Psychiatry, and he currently serves as the Diversity and Inclusion section editor and advisory board member for Psychiatric TimesTM.
