Deinstitutionalization

Photo by the blowup on Unsplash

A Poem By Ed Pickel

She dwells in the shelter of the Most High,

And abides in the shadow of the church— 

Across the street from her subsidized apartment,

Where she battles the night terrors 

Of a hundred voices.

The Lord is her refuge,

Abandoned by most others

Who don’t understand the conversations

On the other side of her door

Are mostly psychotic episodes.

He delivers her from the pestilence that stalks 

In darkness to steal her SSI check or food stamps.

She is alone except for radio preachers

And her poems scribbled on 

A tattered and stained legal pad.

The day clinic has become her dwelling place.

Sacraments of coffee and loxapine are offered.

A communion of saints and social workers 

And the fellowship of their sufferings.

He has commanded His angels concerning her,

To take her home because He knows her name

And because the breast cancer 

Wasn’t detected in time—

He covered her with His feathers.

She flew away as sunlight filtered through

Her tattered blinds one Saturday morning.

Ernest Edward Pickel is a retired college administrator and adjunct instructor. He earned an undergraduate degree in Anthropology and a graduate degree in Psychology - both from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He and his wife have two grown daughters, two grandsons, and live on the Cumberland Plateau (Sand Mountain) in northeast Alabama. His poetry was recently published in the Birmingham Arts Journal and the Heart of Flesh Literary Journal.