Are You There?

I am at the bottom of a barrel called Despair.
All around me is blackness,
velvety soft and suffocating.

No light penetrates THIS darkness.
Vague memories of light
from bye-gone days is all that remains.

Friend(?)-- Drop down the fragile ladder of
Friendship so that I may climb out
of this well of despair.

I've tried to escape before
but the walls are slippery with Grief
Try as I might, I struggle so far
and then slip back to the bottom.

Are you there??