LOCKED WARD
For Human Rights Day 10 December
LOCKED WARD
Is this fear ? Am I unreasonable ?
I stand in tears behind a pane of glass
that I could break with one hand;
but the doors are locked
and the windows too,
and fear and tears distort my view.
Why don’t I break It ?
Who would be hurt and why?
Yet I came here myself !
How, then, must feel a man
who cannot sleep
and stands behind bars he cannot break
for breaking rules he cannot keep ?
I’d go for ‘while fears and tears distort my view’ and the ‘and’ in the line above to give it a little dynamic. Nice inmate-eye rendition of the asylum.
I’m all for raising awareness of the need to improve the standard of care for the mentally ill. Your insight has prompted me to dig out an asylum themed poem of mine.
Thanks Nemo. Are you going to post yours?
Yes, I’ve posted it for Friday.
A very apt rendition of the old days of the” treatment” of the mentally ill people. A reminder of my early training days many moons ago. We have been trying to remove the stigma and have not been very successful until now. At least people talk about mental illness now.I remember writing about it some years ago. Well done Daffni. Be lucky Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year,
pommer.
Interesting. I’m reminded of a visit I made with a fellow patient to Coventry Cathedral before the other poem. We hitched and on the way told everyone we were on leavbe from mental hospital but on way home totally wiothout discussing ity we avoided mentioning it. Clearly we had both shed out in-patient frame of mind.