Blueprints of the Mind's Castle

Erupt, Rebuild, Persist

Photo by Eve Maier on Unsplash

I box myself in cardboard —
cardboard,
folds, creases,
rebuilds
castles
out of eruptions,

s - t - r - e - t - c - h - e - s

across the mind’s vast landscape,
a whisper: calm,
like a secret passed under the breath of a storm.

box — 
a kingdom within,
where walls are thoughts
that stretch,
bend, but
never break — 
(they just whisper of breaking).

erupts:
loud in its silence,
a volcano of selves,
each one building,
unbuilding,
rebuilding
castles
from scraps of yesterday’s panic.

inside, there is a ruler — 
me?
wearing a crown of tangled neurons,
a robe woven from layers of anxiety.

calm,
I tell the throne room of my thoughts,
calm like the eye of a hurricane,
calm as chaos dances
just outside the cardboard gates.

windows painted in hopeful strokes,
doors that swing on hinges of maybe — 
castles rise,
castles fall,
the cycle,
a breath — 

inhale,
exhale,

(rebuild).

cardboard kingdom,
fragile,
yet eternal in its fleeting empire of the mind,
where each breath is a brick,
each pause a turret,
each silent whisper a moat
guarded by the dragons of our deeper fears.

I box myself in,
and then — 
out again.

In this poem I played with formatting, punctuation, and visual arrangement to reflect the theme of mental reconstruction and the fluctuating nature of mental health. The poem is a part of a series of poems titled ‘Punctuating the Unspoken,’ a collection that reveals how punctuation — commas, periods, semicolons, ellipses — shapes a poem’s emotional landscape beyond mere grammar.

Originally published here: https://thehubpublication.com/blueprints-of-the-minds-castle-a1f791ed220d