Written Feb 24, 2026 entered in contest
There’re many names for this place Where sanity slips takes a break Sometimes called the nut house You can hear the squirrels shout The funny farm I’d rather say For someone laughs in the day Even if it’s no joke to be there There’s always a person who stares Some are nice some are kind Some mean drugged out of mind A hospital to save you from self Empower better mental health Even then wrote poems in my head Didn’t share as ambition was dead Decided to stop talking to voices Gave the muse all of my choices “How did you sleep last night” Like a rock but frozen in time Always cold in that sterile place Made it out by amazing grace Looking back in the reflection glass is painful yet empowering and the reasons I pick this moment is the same. Being broken inside was very hard and I felt helpless and hopeless. It took time for despair to peel away like an onion. I recall being strapped to a bed and not caring refusing food or liquids so I was fed intravenously. Eventually I found the will to live after I had tried to take my life. I lost vision of what made me so ill I only knew that I at one time wanted to die. I almost did as I was in I.C.U. and intubated for weeks in a coma. God refused me in heaven so back to my body I went. The hardest line to write was decided to stop talking to voices because I really was tormented so horribly that I stopped talking at all for a while. I had a chemical imbalance and I knew it! It’s much kinder to be oblivious to madness. I removed from the first draft the free write style which was dry and full of despair.
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