PSYCH WARD BLUES

PSYCH WARD BLUES
Kevin Ridgeway

The linoleum gleams
its lemon lime shine
at my twenty four-hour home
away from home,
thrust in the clutches
of a sheriff’s deputy
into a ass-pinching
folding chair
hands
finally un cuffed
but no cigarette
breaks here
in wails of
purgatory

dressed to
the nines
in two children’s
hospital gowns
tied together
at my sweaty
navel
and wheeled
into a backroom
with thirty
other
captured
lunatics
of all
shapes
and
sizes
God’s
little
chuckles
that
he
keeps
to Himself

one Styrofoam cup
of tasteless
brown pudding later
washing down
the lithium with
a sippy cup
of frozen juice
Big Nurse
barks at us
as we twitch
and writhe
in our blankets
beneath
the
fluorescent
suns

an old man
lies prone
picking his nose
diligently
and grunting

Big Nurse
gives him
trouble

“I do things I like
to do and I enjoy
doing them,” he
says bitterly,
sticking as
many fingers
up his nostrils
as possible before
disposing of
his mucus on
the iron bars
of his bed

a kid gets up
and tries to
run AWOL
through the
electric doors
and gets his leg
caught, screaming
bloody hell

I turn over
in my delirium,
shaking and dreaming
of that girl
and her summer dress
flowing gently in
the spring air
those many years
ago

©2012 This work is the property of the author.