I lock myself inside the space of poem
just as I did the bathroom when I was three.
Mother and father yell
and beg and pound for me to come out,
but I am steadfast. I watch the pee
run over my thighs
and into the space behind my knees
and down the backs of my legs
until the tops of my socks are sopping wet
and my feet are sloshy in my shoes.
My brother and sister demand
news of our mother's condition
as my pen scribbles sounds of ink
along the edges of my paper
until words come together on the page.
I look from my shoes to the quivering door
as firemen meander through the mind of dream
and doctors continue on -
even after the lock is broken.
"At the Hospital" was originally published in The
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Review, vol. 4, no. 1, 1993 (Vancouver
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Society, Vancouver, British Columbia,
Katalina Bartok, M.D., Ph.D., editor)
Esther
Altshul Helfgott is a poet and independent scholar working
on a biography of Edith Buxbaum. She earned her Ph.D. in history
from the University of Washington with a thesis on the politics
and poetry of Holocaust poet, Irena Klepfisz. Esther's poems and
articles have appeared in numerous periodicals, and she is the
author of The Homeless One: A Poem in Many Voices (Kota Press,
2000). In her work as a writing teacher, Esther helps poets and
writers bring their authentic voices to the page. She can be
reached at:
eahelfgott2@comcast.net Esther
Altshul Helfgott's Home Page Esther
Altshul Helfgott's
neue Website
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