Hard to Swallow- Assignment 1

For this assignment we had to recall a place, somewhere we had been and not necessarily a "nice" place.

Hard To Swallow
I am looking down
At navy blue “one size fits all” socks that are too big for my feet
with rubber for traction
and a faded light blue curtain that hangs on me.

Here I am,
not allowed to have my shoes.
My clothes.
They tell me I can't be trusted.

A man with a velcro beard lurks outside,
he stares at me.
I am sitting on a concrete slab.
The woman in my room with a dictionary thick Jamaican accent tells him "move along now."
The man saunters along the hall like a "Thriller" zombie
More begin to emerge from their graves.

They line up against the satin painted walls.
I take my place with the herd.
Everyone else has their “street clothes” but me.
I give a woman my name.
In return a little white wax paper cup with a little white round pill.


The cattle return to their cells.
We are locked in this prison
where I can not have my shoes.
At snack time everyone is eating PB & J with pints of milk
in a room filled with crayon drawings.

There is a woman sitting across from me
She looks up, points at me and says "Lucy"
Her hair a black and gray Brillo pad.
Stray strands sprouting from her chin.
Her eyes are glazed. Her smile is crooked and decaying.
She looks a few seats down and points at a young man and says "Ricky"

In the common area there is a Halloween marathon on.
The only one watching is an employee,
a man with long neat dreads
and he asks me what I am doing here.
I could only shrug.

This place is the hole and decay of an apple
and I can not even have my shoes.

White Walled

A soft buzzing is heard from the ceiling lights above her
The tile is cold pressed beneath her.
Scratching at her chest, clawing, scratching, digging at her chest
redness skin bleeding exposing her ribs
breaking them snapping them
opening them wide.
her heart pumping wildly she tears it out and hurls it at the white tiled wall
the tile smashes into pieces on impact.
tears streaming down her face in frustration, agony.
she looks down at her empty chest sobbing.
hands covered in blood. skin under her nails.
she screams.
her body falls back to the checkered white and black tile.
this place is familiar.
body motionless except a few twitches in a finger or two.
eyes open.
unfocused on the bright white flickering ceiling light.