Maybe I should stop taking the pills
as I was discussing a moment ago
with the lady beneath
the grating in the floor
they cannot see her by the door
where the nurses station lies
and I do not let the nurses
or the penguins
know I'm talking to her
because she's covered in dust bunnies
and a very private woman.
Maybe
I should stop playing this gameit's eating so much of my time
but strangely compelling
and I've made progress,
manoeuvring my avatar from the spawn point:
straightjacketed in the padded room,
through consultations, medications,
group and art therapies,
to here, where it's clear beyond the institution
there lies an outside
even if some grills, code-locks,
and surprisingly muscular psychiatric nurses
away; and maybe now is a day to reconsider assumptions
because it's surprisingly hard to tell what's real;
what's not; and what, although illusionary, conceals
some aspect of a truth. Like the penguins.
Who would have thought
there were do-gooder nuns
behind the feathers and fish obsession. And that they
would be the solution, to the sedatives problem.
Maybe I should stop
reading the magazines? But look, see
here's an article by someone like me,
only fitter and more sexy, saying that he
solved this very problem with one simple trick.
That's slick. I most try it with Dr Andrews.
I'll let you know how it goes... except...
maybe I will stop writing this blog:
You should stop taking the medication - says one comment, and
Ignore that, he's a liar! Says the next...
and having contradictions laid out in text
is strangely unhelpful. Has the first guy spoken to any penguins?
Does the second know the woman beneath the grate?
Or Dr Andrews? Is either closer to a date
when an orderly will key a code
and open that final grate
to the brightness of the lobby,
the heady freedom of the carpark, beyond.
Has either of them stopped taking the pills?
--
Disclaimer - I've never been in a psychiatric institution, but I have watched Season 6 of House MD.
And seriously this isn't about mental health, but more about our general impressions of reality and truth, and where we find them, the choices we make, what sources of "truth" we subscribe to...
