Ward Stories

NEW YORK CITYVOICES: July/September 2003

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Some poems need no title since the content itself says it all.
Read the poem below and see if you agree with me that, 
even title-less, Ms. Minkowitz has 
captured the essence of what it is like to feel alienated from 
society.
Oh-and I did do my research here-"Ereshkigal," in the 
third line of Tina's poem, is a reference to the mythological 
Goddess of Death. I hope everyone is having an enjoyable 
summer!



Untitled
By Tina Minkowitz
(this poem is about surviving a mental institution)

You had not forgotten who you were that time
when they took you like a piece of raw meat wrestled to the ground
hung up in Ereshkigal's castle underground
when they bound you stripped you of skin hair eyes
raw like a potato	wet and clean
scarred and dirty
pink flesh rotten with flies
when they took you like a lost angel free in flight
(so the romantic vision gave you)
and shot you to hell with pain
when they looked at you like a clean slate
when they made you beg for more to ease the pain
when they corrupted you by telling you there was no choice
when your vision went black with no choice
no choice to accept the pain or fight and receive more pain
no choice no choice

something was changed that day
But you held quiet inside you the seed or the hope
of the seed
did you wait your whole life for it to burst into flame?

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