Synkroniciti is delighted to welcome back poet Mykki Rios of Chicago with “MANIC-DEPRESSIVE,” a poem illustrating bipolar disorder. Mykki makes this immediately apparent by casting the poem in two parts with different formal structure. The first is a tightly spaced block (due to reduced line height) which spreads horizontally across the page. What would be line breaks are replaced by slashes so that Mykki’s playful imagery bounces at you with speed and intensity, like a manic episode.
“everything feels fresh as laundry day / ready to wash and spin and be reborn / the options are all visible pathways /
leading to miniature worlds the way a video game teases / it all lies ahead / the sensory is supercharged / a bowl of fruit”
The second part of the poem is delivered in traditional delineation with a more vertical aspect, and the spacing above and below each line is generous. The pacing here feels slow, each line ending with a period, mimicking the leaden patterns of depression and brain fog. Mykki’s imagery feels intentionally stuck and uncomfortable.
“Everything in the refrigerator seems past its prime.
Every idea feels sculpted out of dead mud.
You feel like a poppyseed stuck in everyone’s gums.”
Mykki’s talents for form and imagery are matched and enhanced by their bold vulnerability. If you’ve been there, you’ll recognize the mental landscape. If you haven’t, they will show you around. You never know when this knowledge might come in handy, either for yourself or for someone you love.
Read “MANIC-DEPRESSIVE” in Synkroniciti’s “Patterns” issue, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Mykki Rios is a queer genderfluid Mexican-American poet, performer and multimedia artist. Raised in Chicago, and having lived many places across the globe, they recently returned home to the Windy City. Mykki has had works featured in issues of Welter, Meat For Tea: The Valley Review, Random Sample Review, Smoke and Mold Journal, The Normal School, Apparition Literature, Fourth River Journal, BRAWL Lit, Synkroniciti Magazine, Passionfruit Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, and more. They were also a finalist in Lupercalia Press’ 2022 Chapbook Series Contest.