Hospitalization.
The food is bland.
That was the first night.
Beds are aligned.
Like,
A row of cats, all watching.
My roommate told me about her.
We have bars on the windows.
That’s what makes it feel…
Maybe a little haunted.
Rows of bars, and counting.
They don’t give us pencils or pens.
Dangerous, dangerous things.
Hospitalization…whisper…they…
A hallucination stumbles by.
Usually, they are graceful.
Almost friendly.
Tonight, he groans.
I know he is a man.
Hospitalization.
I go inward.
I’m in my bed, and that’s all.
Maybe, it’s me that is haunted.
I ask her about it.
She can’t talk.
Maybe it’s me.
She groans too.
They all do, sometimes.
Hospitalization.
It’s just me, and all the people in here.
She’s picking me up tomorrow.
She is.
If I don’t scream, they will let me leave.
I think I used to have a roommate.
She was weird.
She talked sometimes.
Sometimes not.
She was almost friendly.
When I walk out the door.
I decide not to tell my mom about my roommate.
That’s what hospitals do to you.
The criteria for involuntary hospitalization are as follows: patients must exhibit dangerous behavior toward themselves or others, they must be helpless and unable to provide for their basic daily needs, and there is a danger of “essential harm” to their mental health if they do not receive mental care..
Note.wehmi, nafsiati, Pagal, nashai, game, over..
I had wanted to celebrate Andrea Dietrich’s special birthday with a tribute poem. She celebrated reaching that age of retirement many long for. At the time I was dealing with the loss of my son and the hospitalization of my stepson who was gravely ill and her birthday, September 5th, passed me by. Now that I am in a much better place I wrote this sonnet to give her a belated birthday gift. We have been friends for over twenty years. We met through our love of poetry.
Happy Belated Birthday dear Andrea.
Andrea Sonneteer
Poetess, your light shines brighter each year.
You teach your students with a stellar touch
With pride in your profession it is clear.
In their minds you instill and inspire much.
As an editor and author you give
Generously of your wisdom and time,
Sharing your knowledge in ways that you live.
Your gourmet delights you share are sublime.
Your love of traveling always shines through
Exquisite imagery, your creations
Are romantic and dreamy it is true,
Your poetry exceeds expectations.
This humble sonnet I’ve written for you
To wish you the best of birthdays come true.
1-24-22
Oh, Medical Residents
Perhaps, nowjust, perhaps, it was worth it to break my knee and thigh?
As those groovy young Med students, made me so heavily sigh!
All had a full head of the hair plus all their teeth, oh wow!
None had wigs or false choppers, like a lonely cow.
It was heaven for me as they busily made their rounds.
I just batted my false eyelashes and made very soft, purring sounds.
Who wants to date older men, most assuredly not me!
Lock me up forever with the young ones, and throw away the key!
Being young, avante-garde, handsome, and smart?
I think is heaven sent, they all hold a special place in my heart.
Tis no joke my physicians name was Dr. Wild.
I dreamt nights away....off being his “wild child.”
Memories of my Recent Hospitalization
Panagiota Romios
11/30/2021
Harold is a model tenant who pays his rent on time each month, despite barely making ends meet. He's suddenly reeling from a perfect storm of unfortunate events. He unexpectedly lost his job and is saddled with outstanding debts. Even worse, he's in frail condition after hospitalization for falling sick with Covid-19. It's bad enough that he's dealing with unemployment and recovering from a serious illness, the landlord evicts him for falling behind in rent payments. No sympathy given whatsoever.
fallen on hard times
salt rubbed on his bleeding wounds ~
put out on the streets
Salt Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Anthony Biaanco
Date written: 03/02/2021
==============================
Where did the Lone Star go ?
Was she served as a meal on the tables of corruption or buried alive by her assassins
In the pits of devastation ?
Where did the Lone Star go ?
Did she run from our politicians who pay musicians to make known their plights, their new tacticians or Was she used as government officials’s salaries till all that was left of her was a broken administration?
Where did the Lone Star go?
Was she left untidy like a broken kitchen sink till her shiny nature got lost to rust or was she killed in the fourteen years civil unrest which led to our state of dilapidation ?
Show me
Where did the Lone Star go?
Did she follow Susannah Lewis to the grave for fear of being tortured by her own daughters or she was tired of being the first sign of Africa’s freedom when her state was a sure sign of contradiction?
Where did the Lone Star go ?
Was she buried in the cash box of our rulers or lost in the money containers of our nation which led to her hospitalization ?
Oh ! How I wish to know
Where did the Lone Star go
so I would bring her back home
Announcing a new dawn for her, a restoration
September first is the day that changed my life another suicide attempt 25ish days of hospitalization.
The police and social workers got involved. They juged me and threw me out on the street forcing my mom to put a restraining order on me or she will loose my daughter.
Shame on them I am so hurt by this situation but what can I do, I did this to myself. I know longer will ever trust police or social workers.
I sowed my oats now this is my cross to bear.
I can't have any contact.
I asked God to show word that would help me understand.
I came accross...
Psalm 59
9 you are my strength, I watch for you, God you are my fortress, my God whom I can rely
10 God will go before me and gloat over those who slander me.
This being certain family member's and the authorities who tore my my family appart and threaten my 77 year-old mother to not to break the restraining order
I would like to announce my presidential candidacy.
I would appreciate it if you'd vote for me.
If I were president do you know what I'd do?
Pretty much anything that I wanted to.
I'd have a first class seat on air force one
and an awesome pad in Washington.
I'd play golf all day with the heads of state
and if they brought beer, wouldn't that be great?
I can't wait.
Well there are a great many issues important to me
and so here is my campaign policy;
Legislation, occupation, education, organization,
administration, hospitalization, immigration, registration,
arbitration, equalization, integration, representation,
race relations, housing renovations, space stations, unified nations!
I Will Restore Our Once Great America!
Etc, etc, etc, etc.
Well it's the home of the brave and the land of the free,
and that's the funny thing about democracy
because a vote for me is a vote for me.
*
Again, I'd have an awesome pad in Washington DC
if you'd find it in your heart to vote for me.
*
Surgery
I sat on the bed in the hospital bed, dressed in a new pajama-
shiny and with dragons on-my wife had bought just for this
hospitalization, reading a newspaper, the surgeon came in,
said halloo told me his team was the best, reassuring smile
told me not to worry. A girl, in blue came, served me soup
and there was a sign on my bed that the patient should have
no breakfast. Triple bypass I struggled to think of something
grim like the hereafter and god, but was more alarmed about
this stupid war in Iraq. At dawn they gave me a pill, I read
a poem I had written about Marilyn Monroe which I liked;
then of for hours I was suspended in dreamless nothingness.
When I awoke I had lost the last trace of any religious beliefs.
The days have passed as if within
a dream I have been living
now I wake into the sun
new life its rays are giving.
Yet I fear to touch reality
for it may slip away
and draw me back into this dream
that turns my world to gray.
Lost within this dream alone
pain feeds upon my mind
and with its shadows in my eyes
to color I am blind.
But once again the day dawns new
and draws me to its light
where I won't have to walk alone
and colors fill my sight.
So I'll hold fast to all I've gained
to end this weary dream
I'll venture into life again
and flow on with the stream.
Written 1985
during a hospitalization for depression
my breath becomes a secondary
attempt at the love
we all know
as a way to speak to one another
again
the trees wonder with
new feet
on better soil
whilst laughing
and as
the cacti that
makes us breathe
air
should give an old perspective
that should mean a bit about
how we became easy
yet our
shooting forward
parfait of life
needs
a 200 story building
to show ridiculously how
the best structure
is man's
other than
the meaning of 23 chromosomes
alleles and allegorical
myths
should mean more than this
and if somehow
my breath should become glass
and steel
and platininum
as
if our feelings towards one another
were manmade
beginnings
of empathetic
hospitalization
towards a plastic bandage
newly created
and then
placed over a
faked-out-sterile-presence
thereby
reaching for a god
that states everything
except for the fact
that i miss you
and want you
right here
and now
in the midst of my
genome
soul
Wandering endlessly around white walls
I need to break free of this-
Life is meaningless now.
Don't judge,
that little girl in a white dress,
smoking a cigarette,
by the young age of 10,
at 11 when puberty hits,
she'll be up to a half a pack.
Don't judge,
when at 12 masturbation,
turns into sex,
at 13 her long blonde hair,
is short and black,
by 14 shes up to a full pack.
Don't judge,
when at 15 she's,
smoking more than cigarettes,
16 and every things pierced,
by 17 she's ready and willing,
to do anything and everything.
Don't judge,
the choice that she,
made at 18,
or 19 when she made the switch,
from dudes to chicks,
20 and having trouble,
I started cutting things,
to help things make sense,
21 my first diagnosis,
I forget what it's called,
my head is sick.
22, smoking like a chimney,
lost 23 to booze and speed,
24 and still no sleep,
hospitalization at 25,
26 back on the streets,
trying to survive,
27, lucky to be alive,
28 and her luck runs dry,
don't sympathize,
the way she lived her life.
Don't judge,
and don't forget,
when you see a little girl,
in a white dress,
smoking a cigarette,
whatever the age,
no need for regret,
or anybody's judgement.
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