Residential homes and psych wards aren’t always the best place for a child, no matter how out of control he or she may seem. No, many of these places, with the Nurse Ratchets that work there, are little more than psychiatric death camps.
Hush
i remember silence
walls made of glass
mattresses of chain-linked steel
even dreams were impenetrable
cemented in concrete
you dared tell me
this is all i would ever know
poison in my veins
mold across my eyes
brittle cracked nostrils
one day strapped to a bed-frame
i saw when i closed my eyes
that you weren’t so formidable
your skin fell off in ribbons
and you choked bubbling blood
years passed
but i learned to quell your violence
to relish the scent of tea leaves
as i sit with the world
your silence only half remembered
Publication History:
The Awakenings Review — Summer 2007
