These poems were published as part of the “Awakenings Project: Empowerment and Healing through Art” (2015): “Deinstitutionalization,” “noday,” “Beating Dopamine,” “Lemon Meringue, the Color of Coveting,” and “Pip.”
Deinstitutionalization
It is a hot June morning.
Today I see our local man at the corner of Campbell and Carroll
ballet prancing adagio across the bridge
while balancing a water bottle on his head.
Other days, he plies with allegro speed,
an orange in his outstretched palm teetering.
He could be returning home from combat,
a man wearing cargo pants with huge pockets on each side,
his gear bag resting on the sidewalk.
He talks to himself, but I don’t know what he says.
Meeting him several times a day at a number of intersections across town,
he does not notice me, although I feel like he is part of my routine.
He is one man who meets me who meets you
at every intersection if we dare to take a moment
and look.