A Change of Scenery
The silo stands alone.
Once, there was a barn, just so close,
A windbreak of sorts,
no longer holding livestock,
a barrier to the view,
an eyesore the neightbors said,
though I will miss it. To me
it was another story to tell.
But winters are hard here in Vermont
and our version of the homeless
find any shelter they can,
now and again coaxing a small fire for heat,
that all too easily becomes a funeral pire.
and so now, the silo stands alone.
A change in view that takes some getting used to.
Not worse. Not better. Simply different
and at times a little disconcerting.
About this poem.
I have to admit I didn’t get it. When people who suffer anxiety or depression changed their medications and how they talked about how hard and strange it was. But after 15 plus years I have had to change my own for the first time. It takes a while for the old med to fade and a whle for the new one to kick in and there is this strange cusp where the depression comes back fast and hard and a little confused.
Confused because, as I have learned, new meds work differently, and so I find part of my brain gone and part of my brain changed and the demons have a new timetable, which seems to work fine for them, not so great for me.
I’ll get used to is. We can get used to anything. But it has been an odd few weeks. And will likely be an odd few weeks more.
So, the poem is about that. And about changes in general.
Oh, and the poem is also about the silo in the picture, just across the state border from my home. The story is half true, being part of two buildings, not just the barn.
Poetry is never about one thing.
Tom
Quarry House 
It’s not easy transitioning from one anti-depressant to another. I’ve been on one sort or another for over 40 years and I was on oxycodone for 15. When the so-called oxy-crisis hit, getting the prescription refilled was a monthly drama and in the end my then pcp insisted I had to get off it. That was an ordeal. My life is different now and I have been easing off the anti-depressants. Long ago a doctor told me he thought I was unhappy, not depressed and I think he may have been right. My depression was a bottomless pit but I think it was despair of the situation I was in rather than an imbalance in my chemistry. With the perspective of time I can see it all clearly for the first time. These drugs are all so powerful, it’s actually quite scary how they affect us. I don’t know if I will get all the way off but I will try as I know it will be better for my health. Sorry for long comment. I hope you get through the adjustment without too much distress.
I have been weaning off of some of my other meds recently, and it’s been fine. THe change in anitidepressents has not been awful, but it is a little disconcerting as I learn what to believe and what not to believe in the shift of perception caused by the change. Yes, it is a little scary. What is me? What is the drugs. It sounds like you have made a wise journey in the past few years, and I rejoice in that for you!