DAWN MUSING 1971

A GIRL IN 1971 IN A PSYCHIATRIC WARD AND HER THOUGHTS OF SUICIDE

Early dawn
October
weak sun there

touching snow
on tree tops
Yiska smokes

a rolled up
cigarette
one small hand

supporting
her elbow
the locked ward

is quiet
a few birds
sing outside

she's depressed
deeply down
ever since

he'd left her
at the church
he'd not shown

wedding day
fiasco
she exhales

the grey smoke
the night nurse
shut away

in that small
dim office
Yiska thinks

of doorways
of escape
a slit wrist

bloody mess
or hanging
from the cord

of her pink
dressing gown
in the john

or jamming
into guts
that Asian

woman's grey
knitting tool
Yiska inhales

the snowflakes
sparkle bright
on branches

of the trees
like white stars
in cold night.