2004 - Vol. 1, Issue 2

Since the police dropped me at the door, I was told that no matter what I did, I wasn't going home until the "involuntary commitment" was up. I had been imprisoned in the state mental health institution for three weeks when it first happened.

If you were "good" and did everything they told you to do, you could get "special privileges" and go across the street. They called it "central programming" or "cp." I suspect it was called programming because they thought we were not human beings capable of rational thought or basic life skills; therefore we had to be programmed to brush our teeth or comb our hair.

if I go as a dancer
out from my long inner trudge

ruffles of petals to flutter
about my feet in ballet slippers
I wear when they turn over
on their own will they glide

if I trail a chiffon shadow
long about my neck front and back
to hold on to