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To escape, to escape where dreams are
The room crowded, windowless, locked from outside
In the way something's in the way
The way the fan blows, a light bulb flickers, patients scream
The room crowded, windowless
Smells of urine, feces, blood pushed deep in our throats
The way the fan blows a light bulb
Flickering black and white shadows shaped like leaves and feathers
Smells of urine, feces, blood
One patient rises, a white gown alight with leaves and feathers
Flickering black and white
All around it’s like an aviary of leaves, feathers, now waxwings
One patient rises, a white gown
Others follow, their fingers outstretched, toes testing the floor
All around it’s like an aviary
Mad, hysterical waxwings darting from every corner
Others follow their fingers
Covering their eyes, they step aside the dark clusters of shapes
Mad, hysterical waxwings darting
When the shapes begin moving, some panic and cry out
Covering their eyes, they step
Before wet flurries of shadow scurry over their feet
When the shapes begin
"Rats!" someone screams; others trip, flail, and fall hard
Before wet flurries of shadow
The ones who fall, pull others down into the muck, gasping
"Rats!" someone screams
Hurrying to their feet, toward beds they neither see nor recall
The ones who fall, pull others down
Screaming for Morphine, Codeine, anything to quell madness
Hurrying to their feet
One patient remains out there, perhaps broken by his fall
Screaming for Morphine
Between two darknesses, watching the flickering of a light bulb
One patient remains out there
Me, the American, I am still out there, broken by my fall
In the way something in the way always comes back
Between two darknesses
To escape, to escape where dreams are nowhere to escape
Me the American, I am still out there.