MIRIAM STANLEY

LIGHTING THE MENORAH ON THE PSYCH WARD

They ask you about the need to cover
the hair, which you did
when you made the blessings.

You mumble, "It is tradition",
shutting the door on further questions.

You cannot say, "I am divorced. I am
a fuck-up who's heavily medicated."

You don't reveal that nonvirgins must
keep their hair hidden.

You cannot trot out your sex life
like that short-skirted intern
scratching her legs in front of the schizophrenics.

You stay on your Freudian pedestal
in the middle of the dayhall.

Turning as remote as their
mothers, without an order-of-protection.

Miriam Stanley has featured at Dixon place, ExitArt, ABC-NoRio, The Pink Pony, and numerous other venues. Her work has appeared in Long Shot Magazine as well as in the anthologies In the Company of Rogues and Skyscrapers, Taxis, and Tampons. She has also, featured on WBAI. She is senior editor of www.roguescholars.com and currently works as an art therapist in psychiatric hospital ward.