Heartbeats and Headphones By: Anushka Bhatt

 

Heartbeats and Headphones

By: Anushka Bhatt II Mental Health & Music Therapy

I don’t talk about it much—
how the walls close in like tight lungs
or how my heartbeat sometimes skips
not from love,
but panic.

So I put on my headphones.

The beat drops,
and suddenly I’m not drowning.
The baseline is CPR.
The lyrics?
Tiny nurses in my brain
stitching the broken thoughts.

I’m not fixed.
Just heard.
Just breathing.

And some days,
that’s enough.

Works Cited:
Bradt, Joke, and Cheryl Dileo. “Music Interventions for Mechanically Ventilated Patients.” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, no. 12, 2014, https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD006902.pub3.
Mayo Clinic Staff. “Depression.” Mayo Clinic, 14 Dec. 2023, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/symptoms-causes/syc-20356007.