LOCKDOWN ON THE PSYCH WARD

A poem about community in a psychiatric hospital

Do you see this community of souls

Clad in tattered rags of light?

This is my family.

Some of us are broken.

Some of us are healing.

We are all damaged.

But unlike those in the outside world

Who judge us,

Even spouses and siblings with their words

Like a judge’s gavel,

We never judge one another.

We each give kindness.

We each give compassion.

We love.

We laugh.

Do you see this community of souls?

This is my family.

Author's Note

I wrote this during a stay in a combination detox unit/suicide prevention unit. For a short while it celebrated our unity.