Two Sides of the Same Coin: An Obsessive-Compulsive’s Take on the Pandemic

Heads: The Obsessive-Compulsive’s Nightmare and the Therapist’s Revenge

This coronavirus-induced shortage
of disinfecting products
is driving me out of
my obsessive-compulsive mind,
as all the while,
I imagine my old therapist
at the specialist mental institution
sitting at her desk in her shared office
thinking about
the lack of Clorox Wipes,
the lack of Lysol,
and me and all this forced exposure therapy,
and steepling her fingers
and laughing maniacally,
having finally, finally gotten her way at last.

Tails: The Obsessive-Compulsive’s Silver Lining and the Therapist’s Easy Money

My current therapist tells me,
via telemedicine,
that most of her clients
are losing their shit
during this pandemic,
whereas I,
in contrast,
having always preferred solitude,
and now free
of the incessant hassle
of running to and fro
with its constant germ transmission
and subsequent sanitizing,
am thriving,
even making therapeutic advances
long out of reach,
but I fear that
when things return to normal,
progress will slow
if I don’t backslide
completely.

Rose Menyon Heflin is an emerging poet and artist from Wisconsin who loves nature and travel.  She has had treatment-resistant OCD since childhood.  When not writing, she practices cyanotyping, photography, papermaking, jewelry-making, and mixed media collaging at Artworking, a local makerspace for disabled artists. Among other venues, her work has recently been published or is forthcoming in: Ariel Chart, Asahi Haikuist Network, Bramble, The Closed Eye Open, The Daily Drunk, Deep South Magazine, Dreich Magazine, Eastern Structures, The Ekphrastic Review, The Light Ekphrastic, Haikuniverse, Littoral Magazine, Plum Tree Tavern, Red Alder Review, Red Eft Review, Sparked Literary Magazine, Three Line Poetry, Trouvaille Review, Visual Verse, and The Writer’s Club.