Courtney called her therapist a bitch
And got herself an intake for her trouble.
She took a taxi from the hospital
The next morning. The police car up was free.
A student nurse found David's magazines
(Oh, gross) under his mattress, and the voices
Finally shut up, but now I'm impotent.
You don't need to listen to me; I'm not
Staff or anything. But I still wonder
What I would do—if the sky broke open,
And thunder spoke: "You're now responsible
For the image of the LORD your God,"
For eight-fifty an hour, so long as there's
Funding—for the endless foster kids,
Too young to leave home, too old to stay.
May 5, 1997