Best Institutionalized Poems
DRY MASCARA
Nobody sees through the shadow and the color of my eyes
The times I've cried are the only time you notice the trace down my face
This time,
The sorrow at heart is deeper than anything I've ever penned or spoken of,
an atmosphere of dark film and Revlon
Many times I allowed myself to die, only to return to the living
The numbness of my soul delivers weight nobody can lift
Talk of black eyes, the tale of my life reopens every scar
On good days, the sun seems to stray from where I lay,
Only to reveal the paste that drowns my face
At times I blank out the pain,
the depression compiles the close quarters of my room
Even then, I can't escape every past wound I covered up
Hiding was never the problem, the healing process was
Institutionalized, no longer able to function as a whole
Each cell inside replicates a tight thick wall with no escape
The laughter of nothing sinks into a gulf of tears
With moods more melancholy than most
I press the pain that echoes hard within my head
- I weep
Deep sadness flows with no mercy, no reason
Nothing to cancel out the voices that hush my inner being
In a whisper, I ask for H E L P,
- I bleed
Nobody sees me, nobody hears me, NOBODY.....
The mascara ruins another fake mask
Grief is somber,
a constant reminder to my soul that it can't hide forever
Silence - callous
Until I can't feel anything...
Empty - detached
I felt myself become numb
Emotions gone
I laughed at the end.
Categories:
institutionalized, cry, deep, depression, grief,
Form:
Alliteration
I have a pain so profound that I cannot name it.
I try to ignore it, but I’m forced to claim it.
It’s a gut wrenching sorrow that only grows
An affliction that absolute misery knows
There’s dejection in every breath that I take
And torment controls every move that I make
Love has abandoned me and pulverized my heart
Faith has done nothing but tear me apart.
My spirit is faded and my soul has turned bleak
I am forsaken by God and all that I seek
Despair has taken over my wretched being,
And blessings are something I’m not believing
My essence is distressed by everything that is
I’m demagnetized by all that the universe gives
It’s an existence of oppression on every plane
Like being institutionalized when you’re not insane
It’s a anguish so powerful my whole body will cry
A ruthless torture that begs my very being to die.
Inspired by Rokeyai Hassen's (It Feels) Like: This Too Shall Pass (Now on PoetrySoup)
Categories:
institutionalized, dark, grief, me, pain,
Form:
Rhyme
We did not choose Africa.
It chose us.
There's no Africa without us.
For a while
we thought the Berlin Conference
would change us, but
nothing changed us, not even
the colonial rituals you brought, not even
the whole Era of Apartheid, and the
plunder of our wealth.
We gave everything
and asked nothing in return.
We are cheap and very undemanding.
We are a well behaved and disciplined people,
with our lies and our smiles
and stories about our lives.
We did not know the meaning of gods
that men look like them despite appearances.
To learn about the world,
to discover the one we were deprived of,
we opened our innocence.
After so many prophecies
sweating and breathless and confused
our scattered souls are frozen.
Did you ever realize at all
what was happening to us?
You will find us again between the heart
and mind, where disgraced
we'll dance together again, but to a song
you and us would never choose to hear,
in the name of something new
and feel our fate in what we cannot know.
This is our Africa.
And we are present, the end
or beginning of humanity
feeding with the dead,
with you surrounding us
composing our world
We are it: it is us
whose beauty wavers with us
violated beyond all imagining
whose old wounds are scarred on our skulls
whose democracy lies in griefs and sorrows
clothed in institutionalized despair
we are perpetually reinventing time.
It is your turn now,
your turn to follow us.
There's no Africa without us.
Categories:
institutionalized, africa, allusion, analogy, angst,
Form:
Free verse
Rationality exorcised,
Culturally terrorized,
Freedom lost in the blink of an eye,
Federal coercion,
Statewide indignation,
Selling flag nooses for resuscitation,
Christianity stifling,
ISIS plea-bargaining,
Embracing flawed ideology without even reading,
"Societal oppression",
Active aggression,
Against the bystanding citizen and the egalitarian opposition,
Educational revisionism,
Internal terrorism,
All in the name of matriarchal Marxism,
Gender criminalized,
Youth institutionalized,
Submitting future generations to intellectual genocide,
With a porcelain mask of pseudo-benevolence,
You spew lies and propaganda demanding executive orders of masculinity's temperance,
So with societal lynchings,
Your dogma is breaching,
The foundations of animosity,
Into the world of pure insanity.
Categories:
institutionalized, abuse, angst, feelings, gender,
Form:
Rhyme
Happy 5th birthday have you accepted rape into your life,
It's a patriarchal practice built from sadism and male strife,
A hedonistic ritual to keep us all under control,
The birthright of masculinity bestowed upon all men young and old,
They'll decry our institution of commercialized fear funded by the tax payer's dime,
But don't let them hide the irrevocable fact that their gender alone commits crime,
Just listen to their protests of our paranoia and self-destructive delusions,
Wielding weapons of statistics the opposition seeks to incite societal confusion,
Be wary of their minstrels reciting chants for equality,
Brace yourself against the trollish foot soldiers' brutal tactics of social media skullduggery,
Be mindful my child the only knights in your life should be white,
Not those racist, misogynistic, patriarchal, bigoted, transphobic, ableist , MRA troglodytes,
The worst of their scum are the generals leading the charge from the courts and Youtube channels,
Polluting governmental positions on the discriminatory grounds of merited credentials,
Debunking "fact" after "fact" of our beloved ideology,
Do they really think my feelings are superseded by rationality,
It is imperative my children not to be deceived our greatest enemies come from within our own ranks,
So called "women" who strive to be their best denying any notion of a patriarchal state,
Just because they became successful doesn't mean all other womyn can be,
Your hard-earned accomplishments poison our minds with absurd notions of individuality,
They don't realize that womyn are oppressed everywhere,
Deemed worthless by society unless they're in the kitchen with a baby in tow,
Unable to walk outside without a male escort and deprived the right to vote,
Yes that may be in Saudi Arabia but we Western womyn are just as oppressed too,
Through the hashtag "yesallwomen" we can count ourselves among the downtrodden and render all naysayers moot,
Us feminists will not stand for this institutionalized patriarchy,
We demand the dismantling of this hateful misogynistic army,
To pave the way for our lord and savior Hillary Clinton.
Categories:
institutionalized, gender, how i feel,
Form:
Rhyme
I.
The red winged blackbird knows how hard it is for me to connect with humans.
But I can still share my joy over this bird with my mom, who is dying for a way in.
II.
I was just told today by my teacher that I have a learning disability.
I was sad, confused. But my mom, she was “furious” when she heard.
She’s a real go-getter, too, and she went and got them,
Made them stop calling me that.
But now, things are worse.
Teacher Brett doesn’t help me anymore.
He’s helping some other kid.
Things are much harder now.
III.
My name is Betsy and I’m 25-years old.
I love Panda Express orange chicken more than anyone else on the planet.
It isn’t the fanciest restaurant but it’s cheap and I can walk to it. (I hate cooking.)
Without the spirit of inclusion,
The persistence of my parents,
And my high school “inclusion facilitators,”
I’d most likely be institutionalized or in some group home.
Instead I give speeches to crowds of fancy adults
About the power of not giving up, the power of support,
And the path of independence it has provided me.
(Straight to the orange chicken.)
Categories:
institutionalized, perspective,
Form:
Free verse
Ten trillion galaxies up there, down there, around here
Each with one hundred billion stars, give or take
Can you wrap your head around an octillion?
All I need is one civilization that gets it right
Just one in an octillion, plus a spaceship, that's it
Not for me, the expansive vistas afforded those who sit
Atop a nation-sized pile of human wreckage
Three hundred million strong and breeding
Sipping Maggies and smoking Castros
Poisons to poison the perception of poisoning
The dog is so very done with the pony
My millionth micro-apotheosis
will not make me any more divine
than I already am, just more enshrined
The wooden boy will always be wooden
No, your institutionalized parasitism is for someone
Who wouldn’t slowly suffocate
On the ashes of that which cannot nourish
My roots require a different soil
So many starving at the Kool Aid and Twinkie buffet
The ten thousand ways I’ve died to be reborn
Ten-thousand and one mini-reincarnations
Not one courtesy of this benighted domain
Praise be to all that is not this invert realm
The sublime countercurrent opposing all that is worldly
Humility is unshrining of the self-statue
Shovel away the foul cement before it hardens
No I absolutely cannot play the game
Of hubris, your oh so tasty damnation
if I stand still the poisons will stop draining
And then what of my heart?
If you think all this blabbering is pointless
You shoulda heard what I was saying
Seven or eight addictions ago
Because that’s another fetid pile of wreckage
It’s progress, not perfection
You can just beam me up anyway
6/11/16
© Thomas W. Quigley
Categories:
institutionalized, culture, humanity, math, stars,
Form:
Free verse
Yo,
Dis poem is in honor of manic mistresses who war against the fleeting flesh,
Yo, dis poem is honor of schizophrenic Don Quixotes, swingin' at windmills of panic
stricken consciousness,
Yo Dis poem,
Yo Dis poem is honor of maestro's chasin' the muse of the logos made flesh,
In words, the only comfort they possibly know,
Flowing in a reverie of ecstatic epiphany,
Caressing solace, defeating the alienation of solitude,
The man sat staring at the fractured scatterings of a generation that had forsaken kindness,
And the woman saw him, and outstretched her hand, but the agent of chaos grabbed her,
Purpose, he said, purpose,
And the angels wept,
Yo, genius shining through the tears of fear made real,
Reeling, peeling, away layers of miraculous fish feeding thousands,
Miraculous words, healing a generation,
Begging Christ for a moment's rest,
From the war that wages within,
Men sing songs of triumph,
But courage is when your very mind won't have you,
And your heart, mocks you with its mercurial caprice,
Genius shining through hilarious and cacophonous laughter,
Outraged and astounded,
Dumbfounded and incredulous,
At how no one can feel this,
Pain that seems so salient,
Raging seas of foaming mouths in ascetic white rooms of institutionalized slavery,
Thieves profiting on the sound of crying children,
Praying, wishing that their parents would piece together the puzzle of sanity,
And rest in the greenhouse of sanctuary,
But God won't have it.
For this suffering is but a moment's mist,
In the calculus of eternity,
And in the end, a tree of inspiration,
Emerges from the relentless voices,
And the world knows healing!
Categories:
institutionalized, dedicationwar, war,
Form:
Elegy
Prayers lost under pollution
like innate rights under the constitution
Citizens raise question receiving no solution
while activist talk talks of retribution
I raise my fist waiting on the revolution
Living lives within cages
feeding families off minimum wages
Playing roles in life like plays on stages
stuck within system wondering why the God’s wont turn pages
I raise my fist waiting on the revolution
Rest asleep on tear stained pillows wonder why you have no tranquility
because this system offers no stability
No humility could get you credibility
No degree for availability within a Babylon facility
I raise my fist waiting on a revolution
Spreading Internal and external war
sending innocent souls ashore
Institutionalized racism encroaching the blacks childs core
so much confusion you souls become sore
While, I raise my fist waiting on a revolution
And just humanity begins to adjust to insanity
Mingling with profanity and vanity
acceptaning mental inhumanity
We raise our voice beginning a revolution
Categories:
institutionalized,
Form:
Rhyme
**Anonymous Letter**
That's your lady playboy
left alone for a man like me.
Your failures create an opening
and your just to blind to see.
Penitentiary prone,
institutionalized!
your woman needs companionship,
and she found a sensitive kinda guy!
I'm adjunct in your absence
and put my bid in for tenure!
she's never had a man like me
who's stable and can treat her better!
That's your beautiful brown petite
being seduced by a man like me!
She is fed up, lonely
and tired of all your grief!
Jared Pickett
8/9/2014
Asavvy1
Categories:
institutionalized, absence, change, desire,
Form:
Free verse
The scene was set the moment we met as he guarded my
heart with verses of pleasure-
I’ll never forget the irrational threat banning poetry
beyond comprehensive measure.
Freedom bells rang and little birdies sang to the tune
he wrote like the whisper on an eagle-
But when injustice came the “Forbidden Authority”
proclaimed our poetry would no longer be legal.
They said too much inspiration would cause creation
to rise above the regal law withheld-
All the generations who put pencil to paper
would be institutionalized and immediately expelled.
It was no longer right to stay up all night
while time could be spent slaving in the field-
Poets were treated like waste and never could
taste the feeling of being truly healed.
Causing such haste the authorities
brought forth a fast-growing recession,
for no longer did poets have the freedom
of heartfelt expression.
How do we know this is to be true,
that this madness occurs in our universe?
See, my beloved escaped from the underground cave
who was caught intentionally writing me a verse.
He felt a love so deep and he just couldn’t sleep,
but the cameras caught him under his blanket-
A flashlight was held and he quietly tried to creep,
but he gave up and could no longer take it.
He was apprehended and people stared
while no one acted like they cared as they flew him
away in an invisible jet-
It just didn’t seem fair he was captured unaware
but he was never able to forget.
He was beaten and burned but he soon learned
how to break free from this awful institution-
He felt he earned the right to express concern,
and finally came up with a solution.
The moment he escaped and ran through the gate
and remembered the rules of the First Amendment,
so he wrote a long letter, but should’ve known better
that the “Forbidden Authority” owned the government!
He had broken the golden rule, for now he was a fool
who would be punished beyond comprehension-
He was made to sit on a stool and use a quilling tool
to imprint on parchment his wrongs with apprehension-
But he soon realized with tears in his eyes
what he was writing was really poetry in disguise.
See…they put curses on his verses…a then he wrote,
“Poetry is freedom of speech-
and dictated censorship is nothing but lies.”
UNSHACKLE MY VERSE
April 11, 2017
Categories:
institutionalized, adventure, betrayal, conflict,
Form:
Rhyme
A land of tumoil, you left;
a terrain of peace and progress
into it, you’ve been embraced.
You settle, multiply but never mix,
time acquires a rocket engine then decades pass
from nowhere, demands begin to emanate
forcing unto your hosts, your migrated laws
pointing your fore-fingers at them
if your faiths and cultures are not institutionalized,
then shouting to the world and claiming the victim;
raising banners of discrimination and segregation;
creating lines and societies highly unmissable
terror’s attention is subsequently signaled
to make its agents begin to manifest.
Then either through physic’s inventions
or through human manipulations
unrest is born, pushing a once peaceful corner
towards a land of cautious eyes and hearts;
going back to the exact place once fled for peace.
Categories:
institutionalized, confusion, education, environment, humanity,
Form:
Classicism
Cloistered within the restroom stall
eavesdropping on my peers
soft whispers echo off tiled walls
revealing secrets, hidden tears
Somehow this restroom has become
a sordid confessional booth
a place of refuge, safe for some
to air their inner truth
Co-workers cluster, confiding things
they wouldn't want the boss to know
nasty hangovers, weekend flings
soap-opera worthy woes
Some speak carefully, checking stalls
noting unfamiliar shoes
while others quickly unleash it all
like they have nothing to lose
“That ratfink took credit for all my work
but I'm gonna wait and be patient-
'cause I've got a plan to fix that jerk
next week while he's out on vacation!”
Young woman details a wicked trap
to catch her mortal foe...
while on the door, the impatient raps
of another who's “got to go”
Next there is an angry mother
scolding her wayward son
something or other (he did to his brother)
the fussing has just begun
“Listen Mister, I've had about all
I can take from you today
Oh, now you're sorry, no- don't you bawl!
I wasn't born yesterday!”
Then tripping in, catty office girls
meowling with purrs and sighs
pretend to freshen their faces and curls
while sniping and scratching out eyes
“...Lovely green sweater you're wearing, my dear-
wherever did you buy it?”
She means it looks quite awful on you
“Here, this smells good, you should try it!”
“Gangway girls- I'm comin' through!”
woman bellows, bursting through door
the others pause, and then continue
nonchalantly as before
Eventually they all trickle out
and two teenage girls traipse in
whispering about poor What's-Her-Face
and all the trouble she's in
“She's only twelve, and such a shame
tried to kill herself last week
they said she's crazy, that she's to blame
a loser, misfit, freak...”
“So they had her institutionalized
and she sits, spaced out, and stares
while they tell her the abuse was 'made-up lies'
and she knows that no one cares”
Sooner or later, there's silence
as the restroom door swings closed
then after a flush, a wash, a rinse
I get myself composed
Finally, I'm all alone here
in this magical, comforting place
voicing my own insecurities, fears
to my mirror-image face
Categories:
institutionalized, community, people, perspective, places,
Form:
Rhyme
Scene 1
Curtain rises. Spotlight illuminates a selfie. Notice her beauty. Notice her confidence. Cue likes and comments. A gentle waltz of "yasss queen" and heart eye emojis enter the stage. Cue **** shaming. Up through trapdoor in center of stage jumps slurs. A grand ballet of "put on some clothes" and "wear less makeup" attack the confidence of the girl. Audience applauds, glad it's not them getting harassed.
Scene 2
Enter from right strange man. Cross to stage left and grab hold of girl. Girl yells "fire". Audience reacts in confusion by the lack of an actual fire. Sudden flashback to girl, younger, being told by her mother that if she is attacked in public, to yell fire, for no one will respond if she yells rape. Audience woos at the reveal of institutionalized rape culture. Audience romanticizes the ensuing rape. Audience blames girl for being raped rather than man for raping.
Scene 3
Enter girl, walking through the cemetary of her femininity. On her right, "here lies her dignity". Rest in pieces. On her left, funeral goers asking her why she climbed into the grave they dug for her. Cue music. Orchestrations include the songs "Catcalls on a Dark Street at Night" and "The Hypersexualization of Young Girls".
Scene 4
Lights reveal girl standing on empty stage. Cue final monologue. Girl opens her mouth to speak and… Lights dim. Curtains close. Audience is relieved they didn't have to listen to the girl speak. Relieved they didn't have to hear her opinion. Relieved they didn't have to acknowledge her as being a human being just like them.
Categories:
institutionalized, abuse, deep, girl, humanity,
Form:
Free verse
I hasten to place much faith in idle talk
Reality tells me i am never getting out of here
Rather I am destined to die here
Beside these other condemned band of brother's
This sorry War friends has forced upon me to rely
Word has filtered through the end is nigh
But though false dawns may lift the spirits
Of the uninitiated
A seasoned second tour trench institutionalized vetran
I remember this more than my walls and streets of home
And what if the rumors are to be proved true
I Fear the Man I shall Return
Is no longer the carefree Boy who Left
Another lifetime ago
How am I to live out my Day's
Knowing now what I have seen and done
For King and Country
My Sunny Valentine has been replaced by my Riffle
And the reflection in my polished bayonet
Bounces off my tin helmet
I inherited from some poor soldier never going home
Make what sense of the following sentence
You must
I will be sad to leave this place of untold misery
Come that Day
Saying Goodbye will be paved with raw despair
For so many other reasons than those we lost
Along the way
You asked a boy to buy into this War
And now I stand before you a Soldier Sir
It isn't fair Sir
Please don't send me back Sir
This is all I know now
I love the way the shell's fall darkening the Sky
Exploding into shrapnel furness plumes of Death
The Mud
The smell of human faces
The bloodied broken bones
Blown into a thousand piece's
I am so accustomed now
I think Id miss shell shock
Once more over the top please Sir
The War isn't won or over yet
And Sir
I am not ready to go home just yet
Categories:
institutionalized, war,
Form:
Free verse